Founded: 1980
Total Assets*: US$2.64 billion
Customer Deposits*: US$1.96 billion
Ranking by Assests*: 15
(*as of Dec 31, 2021, ABL Almanac 2022, converted at LL1507.5/US$)
Background
Selim Ismail Kheireddine, Marwan Yusuf Kissirwani, and Omar Jundi established Al-Marwarid Bank, otherwise known as AM Bank, in 1980.
Selim’s son, Marwan Kheireddine, currently the bank’s chairman and general manager, has garnered a substantial amount of press coverage in recent years.
Just months before the Lebanese financial crisis began in 2019, Marwan purchased a $2 million yacht through one of his offshore holding companies based in the British Virgin Islands, Driftwood Ltd.[1] By the last quarter of the same year, as the country was entering the crisis and commercial banks were illegally restricting depositors’ access to US dollars, Marwan urged them to instead withdraw their savings in Lebanese lira.
At the same time, from October to December 2019, AM Bank was assisting Nady Salameh, the son of central bank Governor Riad Salameh, to move $6.5 million dollars out of the country.
In August 2020, while the depositors were still denied their savings by the banks, Marwan Kheireddine closed a $9.9 million deal to purchase a luxury New York penthouse apartment belonging to Hollywood actress Jennifer Lawrence.[2]
In 2021, the online news site Daraj, citing the Pandora Papers, published an article outlining how Marwan, with his brother and mother, bought an offshore holding company that had been linked to the infamous Indian drug lord Daoud Ibrahim.[3]
Last year, in March 2022, journalist Mohammed Zbeed filed a legal complaint against an AM Bank employee for threatening to kill him. The employee allegedly threatened to repeat a 2020 assault against the journalist, during which bodyguards of Kheireddine are accused of beating Zbeed after a speaking engagement in Hamra.
Marwan had enjoyed the support of Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, his brother-in-law and Druze leader Talal Arslan, and Hezbollah, in his failed run for a parliamentary seat in 2022, according to L’Orient Today.
In 2023, Kheireddine was indicted by French courts for belonging to a criminal gang, breach of trust, aiding a public sector employee to embezzle Lebanese state funds, as well as bribing officials to enable him to commit these crimes. Reportedly, French judicial authorities suspect that Kheireddine allowed central bank governor Riad Salameh to use certain AM Bank accounts for illicit enrichment in return for Kheireddine’s own criminal activity.
Marwan also enjoys big game hunting, with photos published online of him smiling beside the corpse of various endangered animals.
Board of Directors
Three politically exposed persons sit on AM Bank’s board: Marwan Kheireddine, the bank’s chairman and general manager, who served as a minister of state from 2011 to 2014, while also being a founding member of the Lebanese Democratic Party (LDP) and a long-serving member of its political council (see below for further background); Ibrahim Hanna Daher is a former minister of state for administrative reform (2004-5), and Majid Jumblatt was formerly a second vice-governor at BDL (1985-90; 2003-08) and related to Talal Arslan by marriage,[4] who served as a minister in six Lebanese governments and is the leader of the LDP.[5]
Shareholders
Since at least 2021, AM Bank’s ownership structure has been dominated by AM Holding SAL, a holding company with a 95.4% stake in the bank and for which The Alternative was unable to identify the ultimate beneficial owners. Commercial Registry records from before 2021 show the Kheireddine family holding 95.53% of AM Bank, with this split between founder Selim Kheireddine (68.87%) and his sons Marwan and Wassim Kheireddine (with a 13.33% stake each).
These three members of the Kheireddine family are considered politically exposed persons (PEPs) through Marwan’s tenure as a minister of state from 2011-14 and LDP connections. However, the family’s political entanglement goes much further: Zeina Kheireddine, daughter of Selim and sister of Marwan and Wissam, is married to Talal Arsan, LDP leader and chief of the powerful Arsan family, which is prominent in the Druze community. Talal Arsan was a member of parliament for the Aley district for 27 years between 1991 and 2022. He also held ministerial portfolios for tourism (1990-92), emigrants (1996-98), the displaced (2004-2005; 2016-1019), youth and sports (2008-9), and a minister of state twice (2000-04, June 2011).[6]
Huda al-Khalil, Selim Kheireddine’s widow and mother to Marwan and his siblings, is the sister of Anwar al-Khalil, a former member of parliament for the Amal Movement who held various ministerial positions (minister of state for parliamentary affairs 1992-5; minister of state for administrative reform 1995-6; minister of information and minister of the displaced 1998-2000).[7] Al-Khalil was also on the parliamentary finance and budget committee from 2011 to 2021.[8]
[1] Hala Nasreddine, ‘Lebanon: “Gang Leader” Marwan Kheireddine and His Offshore Companies! – Daraj’, 3 October 2021, https://daraj.media/en/80377/.
[2] Lauren Holtmeiter, ‘Lebanese Banker Buys Jennifer Lawrence’s $9.9 Mln NYC Apartment’, Al Arabiya English, 8 August 2020, sec. Middle East, https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2020/08/08/Lebanese-banker-buys-Jennifer-Lawrence-s-9-9-mln-NYC-apartment-amid-capital-controls.
[3] Nasreddine, ‘Lebanon’.
[4] Fawwaz Traboulsi, ‘Social Classes and Political Power in Lebanon’ (Heinrich Boll Stiftung, n.d.), https://lb.boell.org/sites/default/files/fawaz_english_draft.pdf.
[5] Ruba Bou Khzam, ‘After 30 Years In Power, Talal Arslan Just Lost To Opposition Candidate Mark Daou’, 961 (blog), 16 May 2022, https://www.the961.com/for-the-first-time-in-30-years-talal-arslan-is-out-of-parliament/.
[6] ‘مجلس النواب | أعضاء المجلس | طلال مجيد ارسلان’, accessed 30 March 2023, https://www.lp.gov.lb/MemberDetails?Id=232.
[7] ‘Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform – Anwar El Khalil’, accessed 30 March 2023, https://www.omsar.gov.lb/Ministry/Previous-Ministers/Anwar-el-Khalil?lang=en-us.
[8] Lebanese Parliament, ‘House of Representatives | Parliamentary Committees’, accessed 30 March 2023, https://www.lp.gov.lb/ViewContentRecords?id=92#page-1.
Disclaimer
All content provided in this report (the Report) is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial or any other professional advice. The Alternative has made every attempt to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information provided in the Report. However, due to the opacity of available sources of information, The Alternative has relied on the most up to date and self-reported figures from the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL) and its member banks, when available. When ABL and banks data was not available, The Alternative relied on physical copies of Lebanon’s commercial registry, online databases and other credible sources. In addition, The Alternative contacted each of the bank’s communications departments for confirmation of data regarding the shareholding and management of said banks. Only Bank Audi and BLOM Bank provided relevant information, both of which have been included in their entirety. Amongst others, the sources of the Report include various commercial registries, official bank websites, online aggregators, databases dedicated to company registration, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Bilanbanques reports, and many others.
The information provided in the Report is done “as is” without warranty of any kind, express or implied. The Alternative shall not be held liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The Alternative does not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in the Report. Furthermore, The Alternative shall not be liable for any losses or damages from the display or use of this information. If anyone has information relating to the Report, The Alternative welcomes it. All information sent to The Alternative will undergo a thorough validation process, and the report will be updated accordingly. For any relevant information or inquiries, please contact [email protected].
