Eko Hotels Owner Slaps US Government with Lawsuit Over Visa Ban

Eko Hotels Owner Slaps US Government with Lawsuit Over Visa Ban

Billionaire businessman and owner of Eko Hotels in Lagos, Gilbert Chagoury, has filed a Privacy Act Violation lawsuit against the US government for banning him from entering America.

We earlier reported that Chagoury was barred from entering the United States and his visa request denied based on alleged links with a terrorist group. Now the Nigerian-Lebanese business mogul is taking legal actions against the US agencies who made the allegations against him.

According to Vanguard, the Eko Hotels owner filed the suit on Friday at the District of Columbia and he claims that he was injured by the US agencies which leaked the report to the media. Chagoury also contends that the US agencies have caused great damage to his reputation and property, and denied his Constitutional right to due process.

The defendants in the case are the FBI, the Department of Justice, the National Counter-terrorism Center, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, and US Customs and Border Protection.

Chagoury’s lawyer stated that despite Chagoury’s well-known love of the United States and his numerous, generous charitable contributions over 35 years of visiting America, he was denied a visa by the United States Department of State in 2015.

He said, “This decision was based on false information. This injustice was compounded when anonymous employees of the US Government leaked information to the media about the denial of Mr. Chagoury’s visa application, including the false information that led to the visa denial.”

Prior to the ban, Chagoury had been visiting the US for over 35 years and he is known to have generously given to several American charitable organizations during that time.

Chagoury was born in 1946 in Nigeria to Lebanese parents. He is married to Rose-Marie Chamchoum, also a Lebanese.