Nizar AL-ASSAD

Last known position: Prominent businessman (Syrian oil industry) and cousin of President Bashar Al‑Assad and Mahir Al‑Assad.

Leading oil investor, founder and head of the Lead Contracting & Trading Ltd company.

Leading Syrian businessperson with close ties to the regime. Associated with the Assad and Makhlouf families.

As such, he has been participating in, benefiting from or otherwise supporting the Syrian regime.

Nizar al-Assaad (a.k.a Nissar Assad) is a business partner of Muhammad Makhlouf. Al-Assaad is a relative of Makhlouf, and said to be either his maternal aunt’s husband or his mother’s cousin, and he serves as Makhlouf’s business front in contracting and oil, through the company Lead Contracting & Trading Ltd. Together with Muhammad Makhlouf, his uncle Ghassan Muhanna, Nizar Asaad founded Lead Contracting which works in oil services and construction and was enabled by Hafez al-Assad to secure government contracts for oil in Syria and abroad – specifically Algeria. Al-Assaad co-founded several major companies such as Cham Holding, Syria Holding, United Insurance, and Oqaila Takaful Insurance, and he is very involved in smuggling goods from Iraq. Al-Assaad does business on behalf of Bashar and Maher al-Assad, and Rami and Ihab Makhlouf, and his businesses (from which he was later expelled) extend to Algeria, the UAE, and Qatar. He was involved in money laundering, especially in Algeria, through the company Lead, and he holds Canadian and Lebanese citizenship. In the year 2000, Nizar al-Assaad, accompanied by the Minister of Health, opened a public hospital in the city of Draykish, which he built at his own expense and in memoriam of his mother Jamila Muhanna. Nizar al-Assaad is under sanctions since 23 August 2011.

شريك تجاري لمحمد مخلوف (زوج خالته وفي رواية أخرى زوج ابن عمة أمه) والغطاء التجاري له في المقاولات والنفط (شركة ليد للتعهدات العالمية). أسس مع محمد مخلوف وخاله غسان مهنا ومع نزار أسعد شركة “ليد” للخدمات والإنشاءات النفطية والتي مكنها حافظ الأسد آنذاك من السيطرة على العقود الحكومية الخاصة بالنفط في سوريا وخارجها وتحديدا الجزائر. شارك بتأسيس العديد من الشركات الكبرى كشركة شام وسورية القابضتين وشركة المتحدة للتأمين والعقيلة تكافل. أحد أعمدة عمليات تهريب البضائع من العراق، حيث عمل لصالح بشار وماهر الأسد ورامي وإيهاب مخلوف، وامتدت أعماله نحو الجزائر والإمارات، وقطر التي طُرد منها لاحقاً، وانخرط في هذه الأثناء عبر شركة “ليد” في تبييض الأموال، وخاصة في الجزائر. يحمل الجنسية الكندية واللبنانية. في العام 2000 افتتح نزار برفقة وزير الصحة مشفى عاماً في مدينة دريكيش، بناه على نفقته الخاصة "تقدمة عن روح" والدته جميلة مهنا. فرضت عليه العقوبات الأوروبية في 23/08/2011.