The Assads Are Done. So Where Is the Money?

The World Bank estimates that an astonishing 70% of Syrians lived in poverty in 2022 as residents coped with a long-running civil war. By contrast, the ruling Assad family had managed to swash away as much as $12 billion, much of it acquired illicitly, according to a State Department estimate that same year. Now that Bashar al-Assad has been ousted from the nation, a big question looms: Where is all the money? The Wall Street Journal reports on the international search getting underway:

• Plan B: "They had a lot of time before the revolution to wash their money," says former White House official Andrew Tabler, who has investigated the assets of Assad family members. "They always had a Plan B and are now well equipped for exile."
• A banker wife: It's as byzantine as you might expect because the family was business-savvy. Assad's British-born wife, Asma, for example, is a former JPMorgan banker. Assad's brother Maher, meanwhile, is believed to have made the family a fortune by smuggling amphetamines to the Mideast in his role as military commander.

• The other family: The Journal notes that another family is key—the Makhloufs. Assad's father and predecessor as leader, Hafez, gave brother-in-law Mohammad Makhlouf, an airline employee, an outsized role in the nation's finances. Makhlouf has since passed on that role to his son. "The Makhloufs are the chamberlains to the Assads," says a Paris lawyer who has investigated the dynasty, meaning they play a large role in keeping the Assads (and themselves) bankrolled.
• Hidden well: The Journal ticks off purchases made by various Assads including "prime real estate in Russia, Viennese boutique hotels and a private jet located in Dubai." But if previous hunts for the fortunes of Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi are a gauge, it's likely that only a fraction of the wealth will be recovered, and then only after years. Read the full story.

Assad broke his silence Monday. (More Syria stories.)