Daughter Fights to Free Beirut-Held Developer

Dania Saab is using her international relations degree in a way she never imagined.

From her Encino home, the 28-year-old Saab has launched an international campaign to free her father, Khodr I. Saab, from a Lebanese prison where he has been held for nine months on charges he bilked an investor in his Southern California real estate deals.

The matter is mushrooming from a local business dispute to an international incident largely because of Dania Saab’s activism and the prominence of the disgruntled creditor--Saeb Salaam, a former Lebanese prime minister.

When the area real estate market crumbled in the early 1990s, so did much of Khodr Saab’s admittedly comfortable life. The Lebanese-American developer, who was adept at setting up corporate ventures around the world, lost his Beverly Hills mansion, his luxury cars and his growing real estate empire.

He also parted ways with Salaam, a former friend who had invested more than $1.2 million in Saab’s developments in San Bernardino, Mission Hills and Malibu and did not take kindly to seeing much of his money disappear.

Salaam demanded repayment, even winning a judgment in Los Angeles Superior Court. But Saab filed for bankruptcy and was shielded by the court from nearly two dozen creditors, including Salaam.

U.S. courts had failed him, so Salaam took the matter to his home turf. Although 91 years old and living in Geneva, the former Sunni Muslim leader was comfortable wielding power in Lebanon, having worked his way to the top of national politics there in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s.

“Saab is personally bankrupt in U.S. courts, there’s no doubt about that,” said a Salaam associate. “But Salaam feels he was taken by this man. What they’re doing in Beirut is a different law in a different country.”

Lebanon is closed to American visitors by the State Department, which considers the country “so dangerous that no U.S. citizen can be considered safe from terrorist acts.”

Saab, however, had dual Lebanese and American citizenship, and he visited Lebanon regularly to see family. His last trip was in May, when he arrived in Beirut to visit his elderly father. There he was arrested and accused of falsifying his bankruptcy in U.S. courts and stashing away funds that belonged to Salaam. He faces seven years of hard labor.

When Saab’s Lebanese trial starts sometime later this year, it will delve into three Southern California real estate developments--an apartment complex in Mission Hills and condominium projects in San Bernardino and Malibu. The two sides disagree on many of the details of the projects, especially the Malibu Cedars condominiums in which Salaam invested $1.2 million. The project netted a sizable profit, but how much went to Saab and what he did with it is hotly contested.

Saab’s family says their father attempted to compensate Salaam even as his network of companies was falling apart. With his debts mounting, Saab attempted to transfer partial ownership in the Beverly House Hotel to Salaam. As it turned out, the hotel was racked with debt itself.

Salaam contends that Saab continued to live the good life even after his business went sour. The Salaam associate, who did not want his name disclosed, said Saab simply moved to another Beverly Hills house when the bank foreclosed on his first one. He continued to travel, drive fancy cars and spend freely, Salaam’s camp contends, indicating that money was hidden away.

Saab’s family denies that any money was diverted. They say a wealthy family friend sent a $100,000 check to help them out after the bankruptcy. They say they rented a home in Beverly Hills after they lost their first home only so Saab’s son, who has cerebral palsy, could finish his last two years at Beverly Hills High School. Once he graduated, the family moved to a rented home in Encino.

“My lifestyle is not lavish,” insisted Intisar Saab, Khodr Saab’s wife and business partner. “My husband is not a criminal. He is a good man.”

While Saab awaits trial in a prison outside Beirut, his family is working frantically for his release.

Saab’s wife and daughter will travel to Washington this week to meet with lawmakers, international aid groups and Lebanon’s ambassador. They will bring with them a petition they have been circulating among friends calling for Saab’s release and a letter from Saab’s doctor saying he has severe heart disease, high blood pressure and chronic bronchitis and is in need of a physical exam.

“This has taken over my life,” said Dania Saab, the eldest of Saab’s three children. “This is what I do from morning until night.”

The Saabs argue that Lebanese authorities are not just challenging her father but the entire U.S. judicial system, which ruled that her father was legally bankrupt. They charge that it is Salaam’s political clout that is driving the case, not an attempt to figure out the financial mess.

A spokesman at the Lebanese Embassy in Washington said they considered the dispute a private affair that did not involve the Lebanese government.

Still, the family’s pleas are bringing the matter to public light.

They enlisted the help of Mel Levine, a former Westside congressman who has used his connections in Washington to round up support. Already, five congressmen have written to Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri, urging him “to recognize the potential further damage to U.S.-Lebanese relations should this situation persist, and to personally intervene to bring about Mr. Saab’s speedy release from prison.”

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), who frequently pushes human rights issues on the House International Relations Committee, has spearheaded the effort. Local Congressmen Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) and Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) have joined in.

Saying “the situation grows more intolerable with each passing day,” the lawmakers have not delved into the specifics of the business dispute. Instead, they say that that is the job of Bankruptcy Court, which already found Saab to be insolvent.

“According to our information, these charges stem from an inter-family dispute, not a suspicion of genuine malfeasance,” they wrote. “The Lebanese government’s contention to date that it does not wish to interfere in judicial proceedings is belied by the fact that the government has allowed the judicial process and the prisons to be used by one family in its vendetta against another.”