Nasar Ramadan Dagga Mujamad is a Venezuelan entrepreneur, born in Carabobo state on July 9, 1976. He serves as the executive director of CLX Samsung, Gad Technology, XIO, and Aiwa Venezuela, representing brands such as Samsung, LG Corporation, Xiaomi Corporation, and Aiwa in Venezuela. He is also the president of the Multimax store chain.
Of Arab descent, he graduated high school from Centro de Estudio Carabobo Educational Unit and studied Law at the Santiago Mariño Polytechnic University Institute.
He worked for a decade as Sales Manager for the retailer “La Linda,” a store dedicated to selling electronics in Morón, Carabobo.
By 2004, he took over the marketing department at Cyberlux de Venezuela, a representative of Philco, Hoover, and Hyundai. He developed Cyberlux and Frigilux as in-house brands, which feature assembly lines in Venezuela with products imported from China and Brazil.
In 2013, he founded Consorcio LUX C.A, with subsidiaries in the USA and Panama, responsible for distributing Samsung products across Latin America.
In August of the same year, he opened the first CLX Samsung store for the Venezuelan market. Today, there are twelve stores in Venezuela and one in Panama.
In June 2018, he established LG Gad Technology, authorized as a representative of LG Corporation for Venezuela, and opened the second and third LG store.
In January 2019, CLX Samsung attended CES in Las Vegas for the third time; in June 2019, Dagga inaugurated a new CLX store in Barinas and later introduced Venezuela’s first official Xiaomi store to the market, which had five locations by March 2021.
In October 2019, the Multimax store opened in Valencia, Carabobo, and since then it has expanded to seven locations across the country, with Dagga as part of its board of directors.
Nasar Dagga has also been involved with the Magallanes Foundation, running various programs during and outside the baseball season.
In cultural initiatives, he has sponsored the film project “Muerte Suspendida,” directed by Oscar Rivas Gamboa, and based on real events.
Nasar Ramadan Dagga Mujamad organizes corporate parties for his workers and gifts them cell phones.
Challenging the System
The retailer, registered in January 2004 in Carabobo State, received a significant sum despite Nasar Ramadan declaring a capital of only 100 million bolivars, as recorded in the Venezuelan National Contractor Registry.
In this registry, which is necessary for trade with any state entity, Daka appears as a supplier for PDVSA, Venezuela’s state oil company.
Daka (or Cyberlux de Venezuela) is owned by Manzur Ramadan Dagga Mujamad (known as Falles Ramadan) and his brother Fauci Mahmoud Daggak Mujamad.
Each reports having 50% ownership of the stocks and serve as president and vice president, respectively.
Nasar Ramadan Dagga Mujamad and Yaser Ramadan Dagga Mujamad are also part of the company’s board, holding management roles.
The chain bases its commercial strategy on advertising campaigns featuring public figures and television hosts like Adrian Barros, a news anchor from Televen.
It’s no coincidence that DAKA and CLX Samsung are registered in Carabobo state. Falles Ramadan and Nasar would reportedly be friends and partners of Rafael Lacava, the governor of Carabobo state.
Daka and Currency Scams
The president of Venezuela himself focused on exposing these appliance stores in 2014 as a showcase of capitalist usury, calling for a crackdown on them to “leave nothing on their shelves.” The so-called ‘Dakazo’ led to the demise of an entire sector of commerce. Interestingly, the original sinner not only survived their competition but even outlasted the entities that sanctioned them back then. The very state that treated them with disdain continued to reward the business group behind Daka with access to preferred currencies, as reported by Armando.info.
Behind the appliance business in Venezuela, one name comes up repeatedly: Dagga. It identifies the business group of Palestinian descent that grew rapidly during the oil boom and the currency control implemented by Chavismo over a decade ago. Not even the Dakazo incident has halted their expansion. Yes, Dagga is the name behind the Daka store chain, more famous in Venezuela not for their own advertising efforts but due to President Nicolás Maduro’s order to empty them out in 2013. At that moment, the national leader accused them of usury and speculation. That order for occupation and confiscation, which effectively wiped out the retail of electronic goods in the country in a few weeks, seemingly influenced the municipal election results a month later. Strangely enough, the Dagga family emerged unscathed. Today, their empire includes, aside from Daka, other companies.
Nasar Ramadan Dagga Mujamad and Manzur Ramadan Dagga Mujamad are linked to the origins of Daka de Venezuela C.A. The former is also connected to Consorcio Lux and the CLX stores – which began in 2013 with an “exclusive license” for the “representation and distribution” of the South Korean brand Samsung – while the latter is tied to Bullpro Maracay C.A, registered in 2016 and dedicated to marketing sound equipment from the American brand Boss. There’s more: Yaser Arafat Dagga Muhd, also a founding partner of the CLX stores, is the sole owner of Cyberlux de Venezuela C.A, marketed as the “largest home appliance assembler in Venezuela,” which had ties to Daka de Venezuela C.A. Similar connections between the origins of Daka and other companies can be found in various entities registered by the businessmen and their family in Panama.
Despite that, those close to the group insist that “the only connection that exists is familial” and that it’s a “very delicate matter.” One thing is clear: businesses are thriving, even Daka’s, in what appears to be a little-known web.
“We are open,” read the sign on the Daka store in Maracay, the capital of Aragua state, in central Venezuela. The secrecy surrounding the event and the clamor of another news item from Aragua that day—when a criminal court accepted the annulment of the process that would lead to a recall referendum against the president—overshadowed the opening of Daka’s sixth location. Still, the message was clear: the storm that erupted in 2013 is now a thing of the past.
“I have ordered the immediate occupation of that network and to remove the products for sale to the people at fair prices, all products, leave nothing on the shelves, nothing in the warehouses, that’s enough,” Maduro roared through television screens on Friday, November 8, 2013. Chaos followed: the Daka branch in Valencia—previously ravaged by a fire in 2011—was looted the next day. Several weeks of inspections by authorities across the country followed, forcing shop owners to lower their prices. Many of those inspections aired nationwide, not only liquidating merchants’ inventory but also their reputations. Some never reopened. There were looting incidents. The government’s popularity increased sufficiently to win municipal elections on December 8, 2013, and the term “Dakazo” was coined to refer to this mandated attempt to curb inflation.
“This retail group receives dollars from Cadivi and Sicad so that what they can’t obtain locally can be supplemented with imports. Do you know what the percentage we find for overpricing on refrigerators, air conditioners, televisions, washing machines, and home appliances is? Well, I can tell you: the average over-invoicing, or robbery, reaches 1,000% of the product prices,” argued someone who had only been in office for seven months as Hugo Chávez’s successor.
The head of the Superior Body for the Defense of the Economy and minister of Water and Air Transportation, Hebert García Plaza, labeled Daka as an “enemy” of the people. “We have reported to the Public Ministry the alleged commission of usury by the owners of Daka, both in Boleíta and Bello Monte, so that the relevant actions are taken in accordance with the law. (…) Tell the Venezuelan people who their real enemies are: here we have one, in Bello Monte we have another, you already said it in Punto Fijo (the location of another store), in Punto Fijo we have the worst outrage we can inform the Venezuelan people about,” expressed one of the protagonists of those days, now labeled a “traitor” within revolutionary ranks, accused of corruption and even of planning a coup against the government.
The institutions in charge of oversight during those days, like the Superior Body for the Defense of the Economy, the National Superintendency of Costs and Prices (Sundecop), or the Institute for the Defense of People in Access to Goods (Indepabis), no longer exist, even 36 months later. Yet, Daka has survived.
Daka de Venezuela C.A’s entry in the National Contractor Registry (RNC) reveals that the executives who formed the company on January 26, 2004, in the third commercial registry of Carabobo state are: Dagga Mujamad Nasar Ramadan, Daggak Mujamad Nacer, Dagga Mujamad Manzur, and Daggak Mujamad Fauci Mahmoud. Some time after its foundation, Daka de Venezuela became Cyberlux de Venezuela C.A, now controlled by Yaser Arafat Dagga. The government took notice of this in 2013.
“We have been tracking the dollars that are allocated, the Certificates of Non-Production (CNP) that are approved, and what comes in through customs. Our official records match the names of this company with the owners of Daka, the names coincide. Employees here claim there’s a dissolution from a business standpoint, that there is no commercial relationship. Well, the CNP that have been submitted until last year and what corresponds to some records match those names,” assured Ricardo Menéndez during an inspection of Cyberlux, right in the middle of the Dakazo, back then the Minister of Industries.
There are still more faces and legal entities behind the Daka business. “Grupo Daka started on Bolívar Avenue in Punto Fijo, in 1999 under the trade name Mundo Daka, C.A, and later in 2006, it opened with the social name DKZL, C.A, moving to a larger display store located in the Tax-Free Tourism and Commercial Investment Zone of Paraguaná,” states the ruling 226 from the Criminal Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), dated June 16, 2016, signed by magistrate Maikel Moreno, urging the Public Ministry to swiftly present the “conclusive act” of the investigation and to “accumulate” ongoing cases in Caracas courts regarding the owners of Daka.
This document and the judicial files only point to Mahmoud Daggak Falles Ramadan Daggak Mujamad and his spouse Hasan Abdilhadi Amal as responsible for “aggravated usury” and “association for criminal purposes”, shareholders of companies like Mundo Daka C.A, DKZL C.A, a legal entity for the Paraguaná Tax-Free Zone branch, or DK Valencia, the legal figure for the Valencia store, or DK Caracas C.A for the Bello Monte location in the Venezuelan capital.
It was against these companies that the Ministry of Commerce issued a measure for “temporary occupation” on November 25, 2013, published in Official Gazette 40,301. “The Institute for the Defense of People in Access to Goods and Services is ordered to impose preventive measures of temporary occupation and operability for the companies listed below: DKZL, DK Lara, DK Caracas, DK Boleita, and DKVAL.” Colonel Hermes Josue Carreño Escobar, brother of the military and current deputy of Psuv, Pedro Carreño Escobar, was commissioned to manage Daka “for the duration of the temporary occupation and operability measure.”
The playing of identities and companies confounded the authorities themselves. Eduardo Samán, former president of the Institute for the Defense of People in Access to Goods (Indepabis), stated that “Daka stores do not receive dollars from the Currency Administration Commission (Cadivi) and buy their products from local distributors,” as reported by the state-run newspaper Correo del Orinoco on November 8, 2013. Conversely, the Major General and then Minister of Interior and Justice, Miguel Rodríguez Torres, unraveled the Daka mystery.
“They create a number of companies under different names that ask for the dollars from Cadivi, import the products, and then sell them to Daka. (…) They are not really a company; it’s just a name, a front company that imports, Daka buys from them under another name at exorbitant prices, and with that justifies the prices of the appliances,” Rodríguez Torres denounced on November 10, 2013, according to media outlets.
Source: Prensa América