In the late 1960s, Hassan, an Arab national known as ‘Qattaa Al-Naal’, insisted on carrying out all deposits and withdrawals from his account in the bank where I was employed exclusively through me, deliberately bypassing my colleagues. At the time, I had no idea what motivated this behavior. One day, he came to the bank and handed me a check to deposit into his account. He complained of a severe headache, so I invited him to the canteen, where we had coffee.
During our conversation, he told me that he recently acquired Kuwaiti citizenship, but under a different name, and that he possessed all the required documents. He asked for my assistance in changing his name and status in the bank’s records. I was taken aback by his request and apologized, explaining that such a change would be difficult to carry out. I advised him instead to close his account and open a new one at another bank under his new name and nationality. He agreed, left and I never saw him again. I was reminded of Hassan, ‘Qattaa Al-Naal’, after the recent serious revelations concerning the forgery of national identification cards, which later turned out to have started at a very early stage. At that time, like many others, I was completely unaware of what was happening around us.
That deliberate violation and distortion of national identity came back to mind as I reflected on the rejection by a majority of National Assembly members of a proposal to form a committee to investigate violations related to naturalization during the session held on April 16, 2019. That outcome confirmed the strong suspicions surrounding the existence of large-scale and alarming cases of forgery. I should also mention that ‘Qattaa Al-Naal’ accumulated his wealth by employing hundreds of women and girls to collect small stones from the Kuwaiti desert, which were then sold to road construction companies and concrete factories.
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The entire Lebanese population, along with hundreds of thousands of foreigners, were subjected to the massive theft of their bank deposits in all Lebanese banks—an unprecedented scam in history. Brother ‘Abu Zirafa’, one of the victims of this deception, estimated his losses at tens of millions. He vowed to take revenge against the bank and did, in fact, file a lawsuit through one of its branches in a European capital. A ruling was issued in his favor, and he fl ew to Beirut, overjoyed, demanding that the bank implement the judgment. The bank complied— literally—by issuing him a check for the full amount. The problem was that the check was drawn on a bankrupt bank. The story of ‘Abu Zirafa’ reminded me of an incident that took place at the bank where I worked.
A customer once presented a government check to a distant branch, requesting that it be cashed because the branch did not have sufficient cash on hand. After some effort, the customer was persuaded to open an account and rely on the check system for withdrawals, instead of receiving cash. Because the customer was illiterate, the branch manager assisted him in writing his checks and stamped them on his behalf. Everything proceeded smoothly for several months until the account balance was exhausted. When the final check was cashed, it resulted in an overdraft of KD500. The manager summoned the customer and asked him to settle the outstanding amount.
After several attempts, the customer eventually came to the branch and asked about the issue, which was explained to him. In response, the customer took out his checkbook and threw it onto the manager’s desk in protest, saying, “Write the amount you want and cover the overdraft!” He did so, because he believed that the paper in a checkbook is not different from a bank note.
By Ahmad alsarraf
e-mail: [email protected]
e-mail: [email protected]
