The German magazine DER SPIEGEL - in a joint press investigation with the "Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project" (OCCRP) - followed the path of the ammonium nitrate shipment that destroyed the Lebanese capital Beirut, to find out the truth about its carrier and its owner.
The investigation - which was published on Friday - found that the owner of the ship that transported the shipment has links to the bank used by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The explosion - which occurred in the port of Beirut on 4 August - killed more than 180 people, and left more than 6 thousand injured and about 300 thousand homeless.
The explosion - which was described as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history - resulted from the ignition of 2,750 tons of confiscated ammonium nitrate, which had been stored in Ward 12 of Beirut Port about 6 years ago, according to the official version.
The "Roussos" vessel carrying the cargo has since been under question and suspicion. In September 2013, the dilapidated vessel set sail from the port of Batumi, Georgia, to transport a shipment of ammonium nitrate to Mozambique.
The official version
Official Lebanese reports showed that the authorities detained the ship in December 2013 when it docked in Beirut under a court order due to debts owed to it by two companies. In May 2014, the authorities deemed the ship unseaworthy, and its cargo was discharged in October of the same year and stored in hangar 12.
The accounts and documents circulating indicate that the ship was owned by a Russian person named Igor Greshushkin, and that the shipment was destined for the "Fábrica de Explosivos de Moçambique" company specialized in producing explosives.
The real owner
However, the Der Spiegel investigation and the project covering organized crime and corruption raise doubts about these accounts, as it found that the real owner of the ship "Rusos" is not the Russian Greshushkin, but the Cypriot businessman Charalambos Manuli, who the investigation said was linked to the bank used by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The investigation also indicates that a significant amount of ammonium nitrate that was stored in the Beirut port was apparently lost before the explosion.
The investigation raised questions: Was the crew of "Roussos" really intending to reach the ship to Mozambique? Could the purpose of the trip be to deliver the shipment to Hezbollah?
Manoli relationships
The investigative report says that, in any case, it was found that Manuli did everything in his power to conceal his ownership of the ship "Roussos", as one of his companies worked to register the ship in Moldova. In the end, it was not the role of the Russian Gershushkin, except that he chartered the ship through his company "Teto Shipping", registered in the Marshall Islands.
The report notes that the Lebanese authorities were apparently not aware that Manuli was the true owner of the ship. In any case, his name was not mentioned in any of the numerous correspondence about the ship.
Unlike the ship's charterer, Greshushkin, Mannoli had business relationships in Lebanon. Judicial records show that Manuli took a loan of $ 4 million in 2011 from FBME of Tanzania to finance the purchase of another vessel called "Sakhalin".
Mysterious bank
The press investigation shows that the aforementioned bank is not an ordinary bank, as the American investigative authorities accused it of being a front for money laundering in favor of Hezbollah, and among the bank’s clients is also a Syrian company suspected of being a front covering a role in the Syrian chemical weapons program.
Only one month after receiving the loan, the Manoli company - named "Seaforce Marine Limited" - defaulted on paying the first installment, and Manoli provided "Roussos" as collateral for the loan, but the bank suspected that the ship's owner wanted to sell it, and he confiscated the property. Real estate for Manoli in Cyprus.
Internal documents from the bank show that Manuli owed him an amount of 962,000 euros as of October 2014, but Manoli denies any connection between his debt and the suspension of the ship in Beirut. However, one of the investigators indicates that this bank is known for pressuring defaulting borrowers to push them to provide services for the benefit of suspicious clients such as Hezbollah, as described by Der Spiegel.