Emmanuel Udom
The United
States of America has linked Gilbert Chagoury, owner of Eko Hotel in Lagos, south-west Nigeria
with the dreaded Boko Haram sect.
Independent gathered that US has therefore
denied Chagoury an entry visa into the country over link.
Los
Angeles Times reports that the Nigerian-Lebanese billionaire had his
visitor’s visa denied last summer.
Chagoury, who is also a big
donor to the Clinton Foundation and has a home in Beverly Hills, California,
was denied the visa on grounds that he gave financial support to a Lebanese
politician, Michael Aoun.
According to the report,
Aoun’s party is in political coalition with Hezbollah, tagged a terrorist
organisation by the US.
Hezbollah terror tag stemmed
from the double bombings in 1983, killing 63 at the U.S. embassy in Beirut and
241 at a Marine barracks later that year.
Following a WikiLeaks
publication, Chagoury’s name has also been an issue in Hillary Clinton campaign
for US presidency, with Donald Trump, among others, using his link with the
Clinton Foundation to accuse the Clintons of offering favours to the
businessman.
The businessman’s trouble
with American security officials began in 2010, when he was pulled off a
private jet in Teterboro, New Jersey, and questioned by Homeland Security
officials for four hours because his name was now on the no-fly list within the
United States.
Chagoury later received a
letter that said his name was taken off the list and he was now considered a
‘selectee,’ meaning he was allowed to fly, but would receive extra scrutiny.
In 2013 and FBI intelligence
report claimed Chagoury sent funds to Aoun, who, in turn, gave the money to
Hezbollah. The report said the information was unverified from a source, who
also said the Lebanese Christian politician was ‘facilitating fundraising for
Hezbollah.’
Chagoury’s name was added to
a database used to screen passengers for terror links.
Michel de Chadarev, an
official with Aoun’s party, told the Times that Chagoury stopped supporting the
politician years ago after a dispute over oil franchises, noting that the
billionaire backs one of Aoun’s rivals for the Lebanese presidency.
This all culminated in the
State Department’s decision last summer to deny Chagoury a visitor’s visa to
enter the United States, citing the FBI report among other sources.
Chagoury was born in 1946 in
Nigeria to Lebanese parents, but was educated at the Collège des Frères in
Lebanon.
He is married to Rose-Marie
Chamchoum,also a Lebanese with links to Niger Republic.
The couple has four
children, Ramez, Gilbert-Antoine, Christopher and Anne-Marie.
As a businessman, Chagoury
has been a confidant of many African leaders and serves as ambassador of St
Lucia, in the Americas.
His business empire has
interests in construction, real estate, property development and hotels.
He co-founded the Chagoury
Group with his younger brother Ronald Chagoury in 1971. Gilbert and Ronald
Chagoury founded C & C Construction in the late 1970s, which was the
forerunner of Hitech and ITB.
The family has an estimated
wealth of $4.2 billion.
No comments:
Post a Comment