Beirut port blast claims: Reports attributed to an audit point to $34 million. Six years on, do the victims know what it found?

More than six years after the Beirut port explosion of 4 August 2020, the question of how victims were compensated is back on the agenda. On 11 October, MTV Lebanon reported that, according to reports attributed to a forensic audit commissioned by the Ministry of Economy and Trade into the accounts of six insurance companies that covered port blast damages, some insurers made alleged illegitimate profits of about $34 million at the expense of policyholders.

According to the report, the alleged mechanism was simple: some insurers allegedly collected claim payments from foreign reinsurers in cash ("fresh") dollars, while paying victims in bank dollars ("lollars"), whose real value was far lower. The report also claims that a limited number of influential people received their compensation in fresh dollars.

We thank the Ministry of Economy and Trade for commissioning an independent audit of this file, and MTV Lebanon for bringing the question back to the public. Both steps serve the policyholders.

Read also: EU Releases Second €505 Million Tranche for Lebanon: Institutions, Not Just Aid

WHAT IS ALREADY ON THE RECORD

The $34 million figure is not new: it was first reported in February 2025, when Nidaa al-Watan wrote that the audit was carried out by UHY Andy Bryan, appointed in July 2023 by the then Minister of Economy Amin Salam, and that the firm submitted its reports to the Insurance Control Commission in April and May 2024.

At the time, Nadim Haddad, then acting chairman of the Commission, said the work must of course be completed "in a professional manner, far from populism", and that the file was awaiting the minister's decision on the report. Assaad Mirza, President of the Association of Insurance Companies in Lebanon, said insurers had paid about $1 billion in claims, that some reinsurers had paid only 50 to 60 percent and others nothing yet, and that the association was not a party to the investigation and could not know which companies paid in lollars or in fresh dollars.

MTV's October report addresses its questions directly to Haddad, who became chairman in his own right in the first half of 2025: whether the findings were studied, whether explanations were requested from the insurers, whether action was taken or the file referred to the judiciary. The report states clearly that this "does not mean assuming negligence or complicity" on the part of the chairman or any other official. As of 14 October, we had found no published response from the Commission, the Ministry or the companies.

OUR VIEW

In our view, the issue is no longer only the $34 million. It is that, more than two years after the audit reports were delivered, no findings have been made public and the victims have not been told what they mean for them.

Port blast victims do not need to know the internal correspondence between the Commission and the Ministry. They need to know three things: whether their own claim was among any that may have been paid in lollars while the reinsurer paid in fresh dollars, how much they may still be owed, and where they can apply.

We also believe the names of the companies should not be the subject of rumour. If the findings are confirmed, the companies concerned should be named by the regulator. If they are not confirmed, the companies that paid correctly deserve to be publicly cleared. Either way, silence harms the honest insurers as much as the victims, and further erodes trust in a market that already struggles with it.

OUR QUESTIONS

1. Insurance Control Commission: What steps were taken after the audit reports were received in April and May 2024? Were explanations requested from the six companies?

2. Ministry of Economy and Trade: Has a decision been taken on the audit report? Will a summary of the findings be published?

3. Has the amount owed to each affected policyholder been calculated? Has any shortfall been recovered?

4. Have the affected policyholders been informed of their rights, and is there a channel through which they can apply?

5. Association of Insurance Companies in Lebanon: Does the association support the publication of the findings, so that companies which paid correctly can be distinguished from those that did not?

RIGHT OF REPLY

We are ready to publish in full any statement from the Insurance Control Commission, the Ministry of Economy and Trade, the Association of Insurance Companies in Lebanon, Nadim Haddad, or any of the insurance companies concerned.

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