US sanctions 2 Lebanese businessmen, lawmaker
The Treasury Department accused Jihad al-Arab, Dany Khoury and Jamil Sayyed of profiting from "the pervasive corruption and cronyism in Lebanon."
The United States on Thursday sanctioned two wealthy Lebanese businessmen and a member of parliament for undermining the rule of law in Lebanon.
“Jihad al-Arab, Dany Khoury and Jamil Sayyed have each personally profited from the pervasive corruption and cronyism in Lebanon, enriching themselves at the expense of the Lebanese people and state institutions,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.
According to the Treasury, Arab used his personal connections to secure lucrative public contracts in exchange for kickbacks to government officials. After winning a contract to build much-needed landfills in Beirut, for example, his company reportedly “added water to garbage containers to inflate their billable weight.”
The department described Khoury as a close business associate of US-sanctioned Christian lawmaker Gibran Bassil. As a result, Khoury won large public contracts worth millions of dollars "while failing to meaningfully fulfill the terms of those contracts."
