Syrian pound
On 1 May 2020, Makhlouf made an "unprecedented" public appeal to his cousin President Bashar al-Assad on Facebook, saying a "cadre of officials" were seeking to seize his assets, as he was pressured to hand over in excess of due to tax evasion. Makhlouf, who was a part of President al-Assad's inner circle said he would pay the President himself but not the state. Two days later, he posted another video on Facebook, where he mentioned that Syrian security forces arrested some of his employees. However, speculations indicate that the Syrian first lady, Asma al-Assad, has been responsible for the whole plot, the reason was that "many businessmen loyal to Asma Assad competed with Makhlouf for control of diminishing resources, after the collapse of the Syrian pound, along with sanctions, made the space in which they compete narrow and difficult", according to Dr. Muhannad Al-Hajj Ali, a researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Center. In addition, the Syrian authorities might have targeted Makhlouf in order to find resources prior to the implementation of U.S. sanctions related to the Caesar Act.