How to make 800,000$ in one night…
The government decided to back red diesel prices during winter for some of Lebanon’s coldest areas. As a result, the price was slashed from 29,300 to 26,300LL.
One day before the expiry date, around midnight, 8 million liters of red diesel were distributed by the Tripoli Refinery at the discounted price of 26,300LL.
The next day, they were sold to the Lebanese at 29,300LL according to some reports, which means that profits of 3000*(8,000,000/20) = 1,200,000,000 (or 800,000$) were made.
Fingers are pointing at Energy minister Gebran Bassil for being behind this scandal, and investigations are underway with the Tripoli refinery officials.
You’d expect the minister or officials to resign following such a scandal, but I say it will be forgotten within a week time.
Update: According to the head of Audit bureau, Judge Aouni Ramadan, the amount of diesel sold neared the 100 million liters and not just 800,000$. [Naharnet]
Update2: I corrected the profits made as the 8 million liters should have been divided by 20 as pointed out by few readers. That doesn’t however justify stealing money still.
I totally agree with you :)
It won’t take more than 3 days to be forgotten, look at the case of achrafieh, 27 Dead, and now what ? who is hearing about the investigations ? nothing at all, they just mentioned that the owner is arrested … and this is it!
Just remember the case of the lady killed in Sarba, who is still mentioning it ? the Guy was arrested and then Nothing!
Just remember the case of the Family who was killed in Ras el Nabeh … news said that the father did it … who is still talking about it ? NOTHING …
Many many other issues that i forgot also and no follow up , this is the case in our country … and they are dealing with us this way , so we either take it or LEAVE IT
Correct the calculation it’s $0.8 million
Dude 24,000,000 LL = 16,000$
it is 24,000,000,000 LL ;)
Guys! It’s 3,000 LL per 20 liters (tankeh) not per one liter!
8,000,000/20= 400,000 “tankehs”.
400,000*2$ (or 3000 LL) = 800,000$
However, if it’s 100M liters, then it’s 5M “tankehs”.
Then 5M*2$= 10M$
3,000 per 20 liters NOT 3,000 per 1 liter. Correct calculation is $0.8 million, you are only off by $15.2 million, no big deal…
guys 8,000,000 liters must be divided by 20 liters than multiplied by 3000LBP so it’s $800,000
dnt think anyone will take the hassle for such an amount.
Guys are you listening to yourselves???
Whether its 800,000$ or 8 million or 15 million or 10 dollars, it’s theft and should be punsihed.
It seems we are not a society that respects concepts and values !
Regardless the amount, let it be 1$ , no one has the right to benefit from this 1$ illegally! When we start punishing people according to the fact of theft and not according to the amount, we will be able to announce that we started to move on on the right way to become human beings!
Nagib,
I am not a fan of FPM and surely not a fan of Gebran Bassil. But the way we accuse persons with no proof is not justified at all. the thing is that he made himself clear last night at Kalam ennas regarding the red scandal.
I don’t like to talk in politics but I intervened because I liked this blog being a politics-free blog.
Johny,
You know everytime I want to post about such issues, I fail to see why people directly relate it to politics. This is not a political issue, this is a matter of accountability that we Lebanese don’t exercise towards all our officials, from our boss to our MP to our president to everyone!
I don’t care about all political parties. This whole corruption cycle we are in does not have a political side, and people need to realize they have to voice their opinions and change the way officials play with us like dummies.
Forget Gebran, there’s 800,000$ that went into the pockets of few people instead of staying in the Lebanese people’s pockets.
I did not accuse Gebran, I said fingers r pointing at him and there’s an investigation and an auditing team doing the work, even though I don’t know how reliable and professional they are.
All in all, I wish people would start taking such posts not as political because they are not but as a sign that we need to hold our officials and representatives accountable in this damn country, whether it’s a restaurant manager or the prime minister.
Check answers above justifying that no one would bother look at the amount because it’s 800,000$ and not 16 M$. I mean Seriously?
Ya najib,
No one will be interested to STEAL only $800,000
Transportation and storage will cost him more
so, it’s a wrong accusation. that’s all what i’m saying.
try to be neutral when judging…
J,
I did not accuse anyone. I was referring to what the article said and stated an investigation is underway and showed the latest update on that matter.
You seem to be the one looking at it subjectively.
Nagib
Just to mention j is not me johnny.
Regarding the red oil issue i knpw that corruption is your main point from
This article but when u say that fingers are pointing to gebran bassil it is a political accusation.
The thing is that true corrupted persons are not punished whereas anybody who tries to work is akways accuaed and fighted by all means.
Neverrheless i respect ur point of view and usually like ur posts.
I quoted what was written in the article and did not give an opinion, plus he’s the energy minister and the issue is related to energy so it’s normal that people relate to him at first. Not much politics involved.
I honestly don’t believe there’s any minister willing to work at all. Ziad Baroud was an exception.
Nicolas sahnaoui and pierre gemayel are also exceptions in addition to ziad baroud. Georges frem was an exception too.there are names that are willing to wprk as ministers.please do not generalize it is too bad to generalize’
I was talking in the past two governments. There were plenty before but Sehnaoui is definitely not one of them. Sheikh Pierre was great indeed, Frem as well and many others.
Thank you Najib! your last post proved definitely that you are a fan of 14 March, which is not wrong at all but what is wrong is to claim the political objectivity and neutrality!!
Johny, where exactly are you going with this? I’ve stopped being a fan of any party in Lebanon for a long time. I might have preferences but this has nothing to do with what I just wrote.
I know personally Sheikh Pierre and I know the economic plan he was setting up with the country’s top industrials, be it March 8 or 14 and you can ask both. He was among the few ministers with a 3 year plan and had plans for our economy.
My last post proved nothing more than what I’ve been saying so far. There’s nothing political nor subjective suggested in all of the comments and posts I wrote so far yet you insist on turning it that way.
Sehnaoui is a lousy minister in terms of his promises and performances, either he’s a Wi2am Wahhab follower or Hariri lover, I couldn’t give a damn.
Maybe you are not a fan, but you have preferences that’s what I meant. why are you convincing me about sheikh Pierre, I am the first one who mentioned him as one of the best ministers ever.
You mentioned that sheikh pierre had a 3 year plan, Sahnaoui and Bassil for example don’t have plans for 3 and 5 years despite your opinion on their plans??
Among all parties you can find persons willing to work and others who pass unnoticed in their responsibilities. That’s my main point Najib.
Please do not take my posts as personal. I am just lighting up on the way we, as Lebanese, deals with issues by generalizing as saying that ALL politicians are corrupted, where in reality we have plenty of politicians willing to work for Lebanon.
Johny,
I don’t vote for neither March14 or March8 and will never do. I am not convinced by our whole political class and have committed myself to stay out of political debates for quite some time now and the last thing I want is turn this blog into a non-political one. I am proud that it’s non-political yet I can’t understand why people don’t judge every person by his/her actions alone!
What I see are ministers in a government doing a good or a bad job and comment on it. When I say Sehnaoui is giving us false promises, it means I am upset cause my 3G is not working. Nahhas before him was no better and Marwan Hamadeh was even worse. Nothing to do with their political allegiances.
I am not convincing you about Pierre. I was just confirming that he was indeed a great minister as I did not mention him before.
Sehnaoui does not have a plan at all. He only plans Press conferences and promises stuff he can’t deliver. After giving us 3G some few months late, he is complaining now he won’t be able to fix the disconnections before 8 months. He doesn’t know the difference between Megabites and Megabytes and wants to run a Telecom ministry. He might have good intentions for all I know but his work and performance are average so far.
Bassil is a complete disaster and I could go on for pages convincing you why. He’s as corrupt as they come.
“Among all parties you can find persons willing to work and others who pass unnoticed in their responsibilities. That’s my main point Najib.”
100% and that’s why I said Lebanese should hold their representatives from the mayor to the president accountable. If he doesn’t work, vote him out next time or protest to kick him out, regardless of his politics.
There are plenty of Lebanese willing to work and they will be judged by their work, not by the fact that they are actually doing something and others didn’t.
ok.
Am I the only woman on this comment thread? I was hoping to sift through the comments and find some useful info about how this financial magic can occur and sadly it ended up being one dude telling another dude about how some other dude is enough of a dude or not. It’s very simple as far as I can see: the minimum wage is barely enough to live on. Buildings are collapsing and people are freezing to death. But despite all that some people manage to sleep at night rigging the price of basic commodities so that they get richer. If that isn’t politics I don’t know what is. Looks like we need a modern day robin hood to steal from the rich and redistribute to the poor…..
Maybe we need more female involvement! :P