Suspicious or corrupt figures associated with money laundering or funding terrorism, including individuals like Omar Sweid, one of the owners of Sweid & Sons for Exchange CO, have obtained Dominican citizenship. Sweid also happens to be one of the names on the US sanctions list from 2021. The US Department of Treasury classified him as one of the key financial channels used to transfer funds from the Iran Quds Force in Tehran to the Houthis in Yemen.

Through the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program, Dominica has provided a safe haven for many influential individuals from the Arab world, including those suspected of unlawful activities, those involved in crime, or those on the US sanctions list for various charges. Dominican citizenship, which can be obtained through investments starting at $100,000, provides these individuals with various privileges. This citizenship allows holders to travel to approximately 145 countries worldwide without hindrances. While Yemeni elites benefit from these investments in Dominica, the Yemeni population grapples with one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises, according to the United Nations.

Prominent Yemeni names involved in the program include Omar Sweid, one of the owners of Sweid and Sons Exchange CO, a Yemeni exchange company. His association with the Houthis led to his classification on the US sanctions list. Businessman Ahmed Nashwan is also on the list, and he is suspected of involvement in the hijacking and explosion of an oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden as part of an insurance scam.

This investigation is part of the “Caribbean Passports” cross-border investigative project led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), in collaboration with the Government Accountability Project, a non-profit organization based in Washington, and a number of media outlets in more than 20 countries, including Daraj. The project reveals the purchase of Dominican citizenship by approximately 7,700 individuals, enabling them to travel worldwide without a visa. This list includes a diverse group of politicians, dubious businessmen, criminals, and lawbreakers.

A Money Exchange Company Under Sanctions for its Ties to the Houthi Rebels

There are Yemeni individuals on the US sanctions list in 2021, which include individuals, groups, and entities connected to countries subject to sanctions or engaged in activities classified as terrorist or drug-related in Yemen. Among these individuals is Omar Sweid, one of the owners of Sweid & Sons for Exchange CO. According to the US Department of Treasury, Sweid was one of the key financial channels that contributed to transferring funds from the Iranian Quds Force in Tehran to the Houthis in Yemen.

Omar Sweid and Ghofran Sweid obtained Dominican citizenship in 2017 through investment. It’s worth noting that the Sweid & Sons for Exchange CO was established in 2008, but its activities only increased after 2016. It was one of the prominent companies engaged in currency exchange trading according to the Recovery Initiative, which aims to recover embezzled funds.

A Potential Participant in the Burning and Hijacking of an Oil Ship: Who is Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Neshwan?

In addition to Sweid, there are other Yemeni individuals mentioned who obtained Dominican citizenship. Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Neshwan also received a passport that allows him to enter 144 countries worldwide. However, Neshwan is linked to sabotage activities, as he has been a suspect in incidents like the explosion of the Brillante Virtuoso oil ship in the Gulf of Aden in July 2011.

In their investigative book “Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy,” Bloomberg journalists Kate Scholl and Matthew Campbell reveal the assassination of the British maritime inspector David Mockett in Aden on July 20, 2011. He was investigating the hijacking of the Brillante Virtuoso ship in the Gulf of Aden on July 6 of that same year.

One of the prominent figures mentioned in the book and investigation is the Yemeni Ahmed Neshwan, due to him being a partner in Poseidon Savage, the rescue company that was sent to rescue Brillante Virtuoso from Aden. Neshwan owns a shipping company in Aden called the Yemen Shipping Services Ltd, and he used to be the General Manager of a supplying company called Nashton. Neshwan also works as a local “fixer” for several Greek businessmen in Aden, one of them being Vassilios Vergos, who was behind the ship’s explosion

The book mentions that it is suspected that Ahmed Nashwan was involved in arranging for the Yemeni Coast Guard to pose as pirates in order to set fire to the Brillante Virtuoso vessel.

The investigation revealed that Greek billionaire Marios Iliopoulos, the owner of the ship, orchestrated the destruction of the vessel, which is valued at $55 million and carried a cargo worth $100 million. This was done to escape financial debts and exploit the British insurance company Lloyd. According to the investigation, Marios incurred daily losses of $20,000 for the ship. Therefore, he enlisted the help of a small group in Yemen, led by a Greek businessman named Vassilios Vergos, who claimed to be pirates and entered the ship to carry out the detonation. The first part of the plan required Yemeni coast guard members to disguise themselves as pirates and board the ship, making the explosion appear as an accident in collusion with the ship’s captain and chief engineers. After the ship caught fire, a distress signal was sent, and the USS Philippine Sea, a U.S. warship in the region, quickly took the crew on board.

The investigation states that Nashwan was part of this plan, despite his secondary role. However, he was effective in securing the cooperation of influential figures in Aden and facilitating the operation, especially on the bureaucratic side, in exchange for $2 million.

This complex plan involved various stakeholders who shared responsibility for the successful completion of the ship’s destruction. It would have succeeded if David Mockett had not intervened. Within days of the incident, the insurance company hired another firm to investigate. Mockett was sent to visit the ship and traveled to the site with Vergos and a man named Dimitrios Blakakis, who worked in rescue operations for Vergos’s company but refused to be involved in the sabotage of the ship itself.

During the investigation, Mockett expressed doubts about the pirate story, and he began to dig deeper and ask sensitive questions in the presence of many. Vergos told him: “In your age, it’s better to stay with your grandchildren,” and repeated this “advice” once again later, saying, “You can go back to your country and enjoy your grandchildren.” Mockett ignored the veiled threats. Within days, he was killed. Vergos told Blakakis later, “I told him to stay with his grandchildren.”

During that time in Yemen, dozens of victims were dying every day, and Mockett became one of them, with no investigations being initiated  in Yemen for his murder.

In 2017, Blakakis moved to London and, in his testimony, he described how Iliopoulos, Vergos, Nashwan, and others orchestrated the sabotage of the ship to defraud the insurance company. Indeed, the court found that they committed fraud and issued a ruling in favor of the insurance companies in the civil case. However, the criminal investigation came to a halt. Despite seven years of investigation, no criminal charges were brought in the murder case, according to the investigative report.

The irony is that in the same year Blakakis provided his testimony, Nashwan, who denied any knowledge of Mockett and swore that he had no connection to the insurance extortion, obtained Dominican citizenship in 2017. However, he chose to settle in Egypt instead of seeking refuge in the Caribbean nation. It remains a mystery whether it was a coincidence that he obtained citizenship in the same year the criminal investigation was nearing its conclusion.

Nashwan also has an offshore company in Panama called Admiral Shipping Services, and the irony is that his partner in this company is the Somali businessman Sharif Baalawi, who was part of the plan to eliminate the Brillante Virtuoso.

Despite attempts to contact Nashwan to provide him with the right to reply, there has been no response from him.

Who is Ibrahim Abu Lahoum?

Dominica’s official newspaper has shown that both Ibrahim and Malak Abu Lahoum received Dominican citizenship in 2017. Ibrahim Abu Lahoum, who obtained Dominican citizenship, was previously the Director of the Gas Division at the Yemeni Ministry of Oil from 2006 to 2009. He was also the Managing Director of the Yemeni Energy Services Company and participated in a presidential summit for business entrepreneurship in Washington, D.C., in 2010.

His name appeared in the Paradise Papers, an international investigative project led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) concerning offshore companies. It was revealed that Abu Lahoum had a registered company in Malta in 2013 called SECURITY RISK MANAGEMENT LIMITED. He also managed a maritime navigation company in the UK under the name SINBAD NAVIGATION LTD in November 2013, which was dissolved in 2015. However, his LinkedIn page indicates that the company is still active, and he provides specialized maritime security training in European countries as of 2017.

As for Malak Abu Lahoum, she faced two lawsuits in the United States at the Orange County Central Justice Center. One of the lawsuits was filed in September 2021 and was still ongoing as of early 2023. The other lawsuit was filed in October 2019, with the last hearing held in April 2022, and it was rejected.

It’s worth noting that Ibrahim Abu Lahoum has not responded to requests for a right of reply.