WASHINGTON (HRNW) — The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday sanctioned two Lebanese brothers who are accused of selling “dangerously compromised fuel” to Lebanon’s state utility company.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control blocked Raymond Zina Rahme and Teddy Zina Rahme from accessing U.S. bank accounts and the larger U.S. financial system. The brothers allegedly used their role as government subcontractors to import tainted fuel that caused “significant harm to Lebanese power plants.”
The tainted fuel allegedly caused more malfunctions at power stations across the country and a rise in daily electricity cuts.
Since late 2019, Lebanon has fallen into the worst economic crisis in its modern history, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by a political class that has ruled the country since the end of the 15-year civil war. Three-quarters of Lebanon’s population of over 6 million, including a million Syrian refugees, now lives in poverty. Inflation is soaring.