Qatar’s lauded "Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Center" (ROLACC) has come under heavy scrutiny after it emerged that its Geneva headquarter is owned by a Swiss company itself secretly owned by its chairman and Qatar’s Attorney General, Dr. Ali Bin Fetais Al-Marri.
The property at 221 route de Ferney in Geneva’s Grand-Saconnex district was purchased for CHF3.69m ($3.64m) on 10 November 2015, by GSG Immobilier SA, a company founded by Al-Marri on 26 October 2015. Al-Marri owns 99,000 of its shares,and the remaining 1,000 shares are owned by Maha Ali Fetais, a student living in Doha.
The revelation has caused concern firstly about the practice of headquartering a self-declared anti-corruption agency at a property owned by its chairman,and secondly how Al-Marri obtained the finances to buy the dwelling.“Normally, government agencies are based at the official address of their country,” a source from the United Nations in New York said on condition of anonymity. “So, ROLACC should be based at the Qatar's embassy, not in some privately owned flat.”
For ROLACC, Al-Marri has effectively installed himself in Geneva, where he purchased an additional property as his private residence – a $6.9m apartment in Cologny near Lake Geneva. His official aim is to close the ties between his anti-corruption agency of Qatar and its United Nations counterpart.
Last December, Al-Marri presented ROLACC’s awards to winners from China, Italy and the United States, among others. The ceremony was held at the Palace of Nations, the UN-European headquarter, and officials including its Director-General Michael Moeller and Geneva President were among the guests at the bash.
Notably absent was the Qatari Emir, leaving room for speculation that ROLACC is, in fact, a non-functioning front rather than a state-approved agency. The blunder about ROLACC’s Geneva address is not the first: Al-Marri bought a substantial mansion in Paris in 2013 with funds of unclear origin.
The property at 86 avenue d’Iéna, close to the Arc de Triomphe, was bought by French company IENA86 for €9.6m ($11.4m) in October 2013. Ali Bin Fetais Al-Marri owns 98 shares in IENA and his sons Hamad Ali and Tameem Ali one share each, local media revealed.
Al-Marri,who gained a doctorate in law from the prestigious Sorbonne University in in 1997 and has acted as an intermediary between wealthy French and Qataris ever since, is on a government salary and from a humble family background. Ministers, as is his official rank,earn around $12,000 per month, which would not allow up to amass a property portfolio in excess of $22m.
For investigators, there are two lines of interest: Firstly, the credibility of ROLACC as an international UN-backed agency fighting corruption, and secondly, the origin of Al-Marri’s fortune.
It does, however, appear that no one has started an investigation, besides European investigative journalists. Al-Marrionly in January signed a memorandum of understanding with his US counterpart, Jeff Sessions,to increase collaboration in regards to terrorism and cyber crime.
It would be not only damaging, but downright dangerous, for the oil-rich country to admit the deal was signed by a man with fraudulent credentials. US president Donald Trump previously lambasted Qatar for being funders of terrorism “from a very high level”, so Qatar can ill afford another scandal and will not want to investigate its chief prosecutor.
The United Nations, which is working with ROLACC through its Geneva headquarters and its own agencies such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, likewise has little appetite to investigate. Qatar recently cut a $21.4m-cheque for the renovation of one of the UN’s buildings – a generous gesture.
That would leave the public prosecution in Geneva to investigate Al-Marri and banks used in transactions to trigger additional KYC and compliance checks, especially the National Bank of Kuwait said to be used by Al-Marri.The properties were bought legitimately, it is the origin of the funds that is unclear.
Qatar has taken a tumble on Transparency International’s ranking from 22nd place in 2015 to 31st in 2016. The NGO heavily criticized the awards ceremony in December as a smokescreen to erase the memory of the corruption surrounding the 2022 Qatar soccer World Cup bid.