Rob Byrne‘s work helped the Bureau of Investigative Journalists and Guardian to name al-Assad, previously known as ‘Client 1’ by the GFSC, and expose how he used his Guernsey-based, unlicenced advisor, Ginette Louise Blondel, to secretly manage his family’s vast wealth.
Since the news came to light, there have been news articles published across the globe, bringing an extra level scrutiny to the case, which was initially shared in anonymised form by the GFSC in March and reported by Express. It was this publication that caught the eye of Mr Byrne.
“Fairly eyecatching to say the least”
“I keep an eye on the GFSC’s statements, and in this case, the record fine for an individual plus details of their anonymous client who was ‘an alleged war criminal and kleptocrat’ were fairly eye-catching to say the least,” he told Express.
“Details about that anonymous client in the notice matched with public information about Rifaat al-Assad, meaning we were able to identify him.
“Given the very serious allegations against al-Assad, I felt there was a public interest in identifying him as the client and trying to provide a fuller picture about his wealth being managed by the Guernsey advisor. The fall of the Assad regime and uncertainty about Rifaat’s whereabouts meant we thought there would be greater interest in the story now.”
“It was pretty easy to figure out that Rifaat al-Assad was the client in this case, and because of the work of prosecutors in France and Spain and war crimes charges in Switzerland, there is information in the public domain about him and the property empire he built allegedly with funds looted from war-torn Syria.
“The hard bit is amalgamating all this information into a coherent story. Luckily, I had the opportunity to work alongside very talented colleagues at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and The Guardianwho were able to fairly quickly turn this into a coherent story.”
Another Guernsey connection
Fitting for someone from Guernsey, Mr Byrne has been involved in tackling finances before, but instead of creating wealth like the island’s primary industry, he’s used his journalistic skills to crack open other cases shrouded in secrecy involving the island.
“I have reported on a number of cases that have a Guernsey nexus,” he explained.
“To give you one example, I work on a BBC podcast called The Missing Cryptoqueen, where we have been searching for an FBI most-wanted fraudster but also tracking where the proceeds of her fraud have ended up.
“In 2021, we reported that the fraudster, Ruja Ignatova, secretly bought a £13.5m London penthouse through a Guernsey company with the help of her German lawyer. The day after our report, a freeze was applied on the property, and subsequent cooperation between Guernsey and German authorities has meant the penthouse has been sold. Those millions could eventually make their way back to defrauded investors, while her lawyer was found guilty in Germany for laundering the money used to buy the penthouse.”
Is Guernsey doing enough?
With Guernsey’s financial industry hitting the spotlight globally at the end of this year, and garnering a reaction fitting of a story involving a worldwide financial centre and alleged war criminals as the main stage and cast, Mr Byrne was asked how the reaction has felt from his side, as one of the journalists that helped crack the case open.
“I think when you work on stories exposing wrongdoing in the offshore world there is always sensitivity in the corresponding jurisdictions. On the one hand, authorities are keen to show they are able to detect and adequately prosecute financial crime, but on the other, it seems like they don’t want to draw attention to too many cases because it might suggest there are deeper, structural issues around the industry and the financial secrecy offered.
“It’s also a delicate balancing act when so many jurisdictions’ economies are highly dependent on financial services with little realistic prospect of diversifying anytime soon.”
Pictured: The fine issued to Ms Blondel is one of the highest on record. The GFSC said it would have been higher, but she had co-operated with the investigation every step of the way.
He continued: “The response by Guernsey’s government was essentially that there is a higher threshold of evidence needed to prosecute financial crime than is needed for the regulator to take action, as they did in this case. Moneyval’s last report in 2015 criticised Guernsey for a low number of prosecutions and convictions for money laundering relative to the size of the finance sector, so this seemed like an important case to highlight.
“In response to the article, I’ve seen some people question the appropriateness of a £210,000 fine and ban, given that Ginette Blondel worked for an alleged war criminal. More broadly, whether Guernsey and other offshore jurisdictions can effectively police their financial sectors is a very important question, I feel. The Crown Dependencies have long resisted pressure to make company ownership information public despite making a commitment to it in 2019.
“As I understand it, access will now be based on those deemed to have a ‘legitimate interest’, so it will be interesting to see who that includes. Without opening up ownership information to outside scrutiny, it is very difficult to know how well offshore jurisdictions are run. Where journalists do pierce financial secrecy, often through leaks of information, we often see that secrecy is abused by bad actors, such as the Cryptoqueen who I mentioned earlier.
“When these criminals are caught it is then worth considering how authorities in the offshore jurisdictions act – in terms of cooperation with other countries but also what action they take against any local enablers who may have facilitated them. Are they sufficiently investigated and where appropriate punished, and is there a sufficient deterrent to stopping financial crime? With Guernsey in mind, we will soon have Moneyval’s latest assessment on these issues.”
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£210k fine for working with alleged war criminal without a licence