Omar Harfouch

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Omar Harfouch (Arabic: عمر حرفوش; born 20 April 1969)^[1] is a politician and leader of new opposition party the “Third Republic”, and a businessman.^[2] Owner of a communications group in Ukraine, he is known in France for his participation in the reality show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of here! and for his many appearances at jet set parties, in videos, and in celebrity magazines.^[3]

Omar Harfouch is of Lebanese origin. In Kyiv, he and his brother Walid Harfouch own the Supernova media group which includes the FM radio in Ukraine, radio Supernova.^[3] He is the publisher and editor of Paparazzi, a magazine in Russian.^[4]

Declaring that "the world of fashion needed a revolution," he and Walid founded a Geneva-based company in charge of organizing beauty contests in Ukraine in which the jury is composed of Internet users and voters.^[5] In 2002, he organized the final of Miss World Net in Tripoli, accompanied by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, despite the international embargo that was imposed on the country at that time.^[6]

He became known to the general public in France in April 2006, when he took part in the reality show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of here! for the benefit of Reporters Without Borders. During the show, he became the center of a controversy when he said he was a victim of "racist remarks" (he has black skin) of Marielle Goitschel, who in turn claimed to have treated him as "just a shrimp" (minus in French).^[7]

He organized the Miss Europe competition with Endemol, initially presented on TF1, but the channel decided to sell it.^[8]

In May 2006, after participating in the radio broadcast of Cauet dechire on Fun Radio, he filed a complaint against Cauet for defamation and racial abuse for statements uttered during the show and published by the magazine Entrevue in July 2006.^[9][10] A few months later, Cauet was found guilty of public defamation of an individual and sentenced to a 500 euro fine and one euro in damages.^{[11][citation needed]} including two against Geneviève de Fontenay,^[12] and four against Entrevue.

In October 2006, he released a book, Mystères, scandales et... fortune (Mysteries, Scandals and... Fortune). The same year, he released his autobiography, Omar Harfouch: Confessions of a millionaire.

Harfouch launched a large-scale anti-corruption project in Lebanon. Together with members of the European Parliament, he allegedly discovered in foreign accounts, and also claims to have seized the first $150 million^[13] stolen from the Lebanese budget.^[14][15]

Omar Harfouch is a self-proclaimed leader of Lebanon's largest new political movement, The Third Republic.^[16] On February 9, 2022, the founding conference of the Harfouch party Third Lebanese Republic took place in Beirut.^[17]

• Personal Website