Sanctions-hit Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf on Sunday said that security forces are arresting employees at his diversified companies in what he said were "mounting pressures" on him days after Syrian authorities asked him to repay hefty taxes.
"Today pressures began in an unacceptable ways and the security forces, in an inhumane way, are arresting our employees," Makhlouf said in a video.
Makhlouf, a maternal cousin of President Bashar Assad and widely considered part of the president’s inner circle, has a business empire that ranges from telecoms and real estate to construction and oil trading.
Addressing Assad in the video, Makhlouf said he had been asked to step down from the companies he runs, including Syriatel, the country's main mobile operator and main source of revenue for the sanctions-hit regime.
"Did anyone expect the security forces would pounce on Rami Makhlouf's companies who were their biggest supporters and their patron during the war?" he asked.
Makhlouf had played a big role in financing Assad's war effort, Western officials have said.
Earlier this week, Makhlouf posted a video on Facebook pleading with Assad to prevent the collapse of his telecommunication company through what he called excessive and “unjust” taxation.
The unprecedented video pries open what has been rumored as a major rift in the tight-knit Assad family, which has ruled Syria for nearly 50 years.
The regime on Saturday hit back, demanding that Makhlouf comes forth with the payment of public financial dues connected to Syriatel.
The Regulatory Authority for Communications and Post, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Communications and Technology, issued a warning through the authorities to the two cellular companies in Syria, one of which Makhlouf owns, and gave them until May 5 to pay more than 233 billion pounds ($334 million) to “achieve a balance in the license”, otherwise legal measures will be taken.
The Authority, in a statement, said that the sums required to be paid by the two telecom companies Syriatel and MTN were calculated according to existing and clear documents and by specialized committees.
“The amounts required to be paid by cellular companies are amounts due to the state in accordance with clear and existing documents, and were calculated based on the work of specialized committees in financial, economic, technical and legal affairs,” the statement said.
“In order to preserve the continuing work of the cellular network and the continued provision of its services to citizens … all the reservations of the companies were taken into consideration and given the deadlines and periods requested by them,” the Authority added.
“The amounts required to be paid in two phases have been calculated, the first according to the actual figures during the first five operating years of 2015 to 2019 (according to the request of the two companies and according to the published financial data) … and the second according to the expected numbers presented by each company,” it said.
The statement also stressed that the amounts claimed by the Authority are due and have nothing to do with the issue of tax evasion Syriatel is being accused of.
As for the tax evasion case, the statement said that it is being pursued by “competent authorities.”
Disputes and intrigue are not new to the family, including feuds and defections within its inner circle, particularly in the course of the country's nine-year war. But the public airing of grievances is extremely rare, perhaps a reflection of the multitude of players vying for influence in the fractured country.
His video, posted on a new Facebook page, seems to be a running public diary of the widening rift — and the fall from grace of a once-powerful tycoon.
Makhlouf, who is four years younger than the 54-year-old Assad, had declared that he was stepping aside from business to focus on charity work in 2011, at the start of Syria’s conflict. But he remained associated with the regime.
The billionaire has been under US sanctions since 2008 for what Washington calls public corruption and it has since toughened measures against top businessmen who are close to him.
The European Union has also slapped sanctions on Makhlouf since 2011, accusing him of bankrolling Assad.
He became a hated figure to many pro-democracy protesters who rose up against corruption and the authoritarian rule of Assad in March 2011.
Reports first surfaced last year of troubled relations as news of a regime campaign against Makhlouf and his businesses began to trickle out. Initial reports said he was under house arrest, and then a series of stories appeared about him being fined and having his holdings confiscated.
Last month, a shipment of dairy products from one of Makhlouf's businesses was confiscated in Egypt, reportedly with drugs hidden in the cargo. On his Facebook page, Makhlouf called the incident a set-up aimed at “defaming" him.
