December 13, 2024

“Hafiz Assad stole $17 billion during his 29 years ruling Syria, and he wasn’t interested in money,” a Syrian banker told Field. “Since Bashar took over in 2000, he ran Syria as a racket. Every transaction, every service was taxed. The war turned Syria into a full black market economy. Bashar’s thugs are estimated to have made hundreds of millions of dollars just from prisoners that they tortured and killed since 2013.”