Huawei Is Going After This Lebanese Businessman For $35 Million

The Chinese tech behemoth Huawei is taking legal action against a Lebanese businessman in France, according to the French magazine Capital.

Businessman Nizar Dalloul is facing a lawsuit by Huawei over unpaid dues, compounded over many years in different countries.

The company is claiming $35 million for the owed money, which is for investments made in the telecommunications sector in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d’Ivoire.

For this dispute, which has been ongoing for 9 years, Huawei launched in 2014 legal proceedings against Dalloul, who is the son-in-law of Nazik Hariri, the widow of late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Considering that he has “solid political connections” in Lebanon, Dalloul was hoping that his trial would take place there instead, Capital points out.

According to the magazine, the businessman, who currently resides in France, owns several companies registered in “tax havens” such as the British Virgin Islands and Jersey.

Initially, Huawei sued Dalloul through China’s justice system, but the lawsuit was still ongoing in 2019.

Currently, the Chinese company is counting on “a personal guarantee” given to the French justice system in 2011.

Nizar Dalloul, with his brother Ali, was the main shareholder of LibanCell before it was seized by the Lebanese state in 2004, after which the telecom tycoon traveled to Liberia in 2004, Sierra Leone in 2005, The Gambia 2007, and Côte d’Ivoire in the same year.

Huawei was the main supplier that provided Dalloul with the networks in three of the above countries, but he failed to pay his dues, prompting the tech company to sue him.

It was estimated that in 2011, Dalloul’s debts amounted to more than 300 million euros.

Notably, his father Mohsen was the Minister of Defense in the Cabinet of Rafic Hariri, who was assassinated in 2005.