[imagesource:here]

Instagram star Daniel Mac, known for his videos asking people in fancy cars “what do you do for a living”, has spotted an unlikely “intern” driving a Ferrari Spider worth more than $300 000 (basically R4,5 million).

It turned out to be Ali Makhlouf, seen above.

If that name or face rings a bell, it is because he is the son of Syria’s richest man Rami Makhlouf, who is listed on multiple US sanctions for financing the Assad regime.

The Makhlouf’s are the cousins of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who waged war on Syria, causing devastating poverty in his wake.

It has been well documented that political scientists have characterised the Assad family’s rule of Syria as a personalist dictatorship, and Makhlouf’s money helped make that happen.

Mac filmed Makhlouf and his passenger, who VICE says closely resemble an Israeli model from Tel Aviv, sitting in the luxury sports car.

When Ali Makhlouf was asked what he does for a living, his hesitation, alongside the woman’s obvious smirk, said it all.

Even though Ali, who has more than 200 000 Instagram followers, claimed to be an “intern” and said the sports car was rented:

You can check out the full video here.

Despite Makhlouf’s father Rami facing multiple US sanctions after pretty much financing the Syrian war, his youngest son feels no shame for living the high life in Los Angeles:

In 2008, the US Department of Treasury froze all of Rami Makhlouf’s American assets and made it illegal for any US based companies to do business with him or his network of companies, including Syriatel, the Syrian national phone carrier. This led to seizures of his accounts in Cyprus and Switzerland and left most US and European banks unable to conduct business with him.

In fact, it’s not the first time that side of the Assad family has displayed their wealth.

In 2019, Ali’s older brother Mohammed was briefly detained in Syria because of outrage over his luxury influencer lifestyle.

Mohammed was posting about it all over his social media, which forced Assad to take steps against the family’s wealth:

Their father’s network of shell companies gave the regime critical access to hard currency it needed to wage war on its people but drew increasing sanctions and attention from financial regulators around the world.

Mohammed Instagram has over 100 000 followers now, but it looks like all the posts of him showing off his excesses were taken down, like these two:

The Makhlouf brothers moved to Dubai in 2011 at the start of the Syrian revolution, where they appear to have continued their lavish lifestyles.

Here’s Ali in August:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Ali Rami Makhlouf (@ali_r_makhlouf)

And Mohammed in July:

 

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A post shared by MRM (@mohammad.r.makhlouf)

The only direction for those who are too rich for their boots is down. Mohammed and Ali should take it from their father.

[sources:vice]