The power struggle between President Bashar al Assad of Syria and his maternal cousin, Rami Makhlouf, appears to have intensified after the billionaire tycoon proclaimed in a Facebook post that he helped the regime set up offshore front companies so that it could avoid sanctions.  

A Syrian tycoon accused of enriching himself at the expense of Syrian people appealed on Sunday to his maternal cousin, President Bashar al-Assad, to stop authorities from insisting that he pay millions of dollars in taxes and arresting managers at his companies in “an inhuman” way.