From a modest teacher to the richest man in Tunisia.. Where is Rached Ghannouchi’s fortune coming from?
In his first year of graduation in his country, he was a simple teacher, he spent his life as a refugee in the UK, only to receive the granting of asylum in London. For more than two decades, he was not employed, whereas he was not a major entrepreneur. Suddenly, without warning, Rached Ghannouchi is on the list of the richest people in Tunisia, with a huge number reaching 2.7 billion Tunisian dinars (equivalent to about one billion US dollars). How did that happen? Did he sign the keys to Ali Baba’s cave?
I. Unveiling:
In an investigation published by the Tunisian newspaper Al-Anwar on March 26, 2021, based on reliable data, under the heading “Al-Anwar unfold the file of Ghannouchi’s wealth”, it was revealed that the size of wealth of Rached Ghannouchi, the president of the parliament at the time, and the president of the Brotherhood Ennahdha movement, is more than 2.7 billion dinars, equivalent to one billion dollars, thus topping the list of the richest people in Tunisia, distributed in the form of bank deposits in Switzerland and shares in companies outside Tunisia, including three companies in France active in the distribution trade, which are the latest techniques of money laundering and smuggling, such as export and import bills or collecting amounts in hard currency from migrants in exchange for their salvation in local currencies in the countries of residence.
“This wealth is managed by a limited number of Ghannouchi’s relatives, including his sons Moaz and Suhail, and his son-in-law, former Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem”, the newspaper states.
II. Sources of wealth:
Ghannouchi invests his relationships and position in a diverse field, experts say that he controls nearly all the elements of the Tunisia’s state, including the military, security, customs and various institutions, through employees of various ranks, who were installed following the 2012 elections won by the security forces.
“Then, Ennahdha took advantage of Tunisia’s difficult situation following the 2011 protests and state confusion, employing thousands – mostly its own supporters – in the army, security, and other vital sectors of the country, giving Ghannouchi an expanded network that existed at all outlets, which guaranteed his activities later”.
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1. The death trade:
He manages the death net between Tunisia and Libya, all the way to Syria and Iraq, and carries out mediation to secure the dispatch of terrorists to hotbeds of tension to uphold chaos there, merely like what took place in Libya; a neighbor that Turkey has flooded with a weapon transiting through military cargo planes, or across the Tunisian border, at the behest of Ghannouchi; an activity that appears to have yielded imaginary returns, given its prosperity since his return to Tunisia in 2011.
The investigation states that the brokering of arms smuggling to Libya is one of the main sources of wealth for Ghannouchi, as it facilitated the passage of more than 20 shipments of weapons to Libya in return for commissions totaling $30 million.
3. Passports:
“Ghannouchi’s wealth is broadly due to the passport trade, which is supervised by former secretary of state for immigration (senior official) Houcine Jaziri. This trade generates an annual turnover of around $220 million, which demonstrates the Troika’s concurrent decisions in 2012, in particular the extension of the maximum age for cars from 3 to 5 years, as well as the reduction of about 15,000 cars in the annual supply quota for the organized sector”.
3. Smuggling:
According to the investigation, Ennahdha’s leader and Member of Parliament, Sayed Ferjani, runs a network of large smugglers by proxy, generating large sums of money, through the indiscriminate supply of all types of consumer goods. The network’s revenues are derived mainly from mercenaries and the random supply of cigarettes, which increased its transactions between 2011 and 2015 to about 100 billion a year.
4. Looting of state treasury:
The fate of the Tunisian people’s money has been unveiled since the Brotherhood’s rise to power, when Karim Gharbi, an international rapper and the son-in-law of former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, disclosed that the latter left 5.8 billion dinars (over US$2 billion) in the Country’s Treasury when he fell during the revolution. It disappeared when Rached Ghannouchi, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Ennahdha Movement, came to power in the 2011 elections, pushing Tunisia to the brink of bankruptcy and plunging her into severe economic crisis.
Narjes Ben Qamra, a Tunisian political scientist, said: Ghannouchi’s suspicious wealth is one of the aspects of the Brotherhood’s corruption in Tunisia, which was able to take over the country’s treasury and was controlled by pro-government ministers since the government of Hamadi Jebali in 2012, clarifying that there is no alternative to the Tunisian judiciary to act, especially that the anti-corruption body (Tunisian constitutional body) announced in its 2020 report the existence of unknown funds sources that reached Ennahdha in the last elections.
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5. Money laundering:
Former Tunisian minister Mohamed Abbou revealed that Ghannouchi’s Ennahdha Movement owns four media channels suspected of money laundering.
Prior retiring from political life late last year, Abbou said in a press conference that financial crimes committed by Ennahdha and its leader Ghannouchi after the fall of the Ben Ali regime, pointing out that all corruption files related to the family of the leader of the Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood have been referred to the judiciary for examination and to reveal their ambiguous circumstances.
6. Black box:
“The fingers are pointed at Rafik Abdessalem who is really good at the keeping Ghannouchi’s secrets, heads a group of research centers, media outlets, and private companies.
Abdessalem was implicated in the embezzlement of a Chinese donation of $500 million in 2012; it is still the subject of judicial research and widespread condemnation by civil society organizations. Ghannouchi’s son-in-law has precedents in moral issues when he assumed the post of foreign minister during the fall of the Ben Ali regime.
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III. Brotherhood splits:
Once the truth revealed, the movement’s founding leaders collapsed around him. The schisms became the most prominent feature on its path, and opinion polls emerged as the most hated figure among Tunisians and the man they never trust.
Tunisian sources who defected from Ennahdha said that Ghannouchi’s fortune, which was revealed by the Tunisian newspaper Al-Anwar, amounted to 2.7 billion Tunisian dinars ($1 billion), are a small figure compared to the funds it has in the country and abroad. Sources pointed out that this suspicious wealth caused divisions among the Brotherhood’s leaders since 2017, as it was the direct reason that 100 members of Ennahdha movement Ghannouchi’s demanded to defect and resign.
In a famous letter released in September 2019, Ennahdha leader Zubair al-Shahoudi described the Ghannouchi family as corrupts and spoiler.
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