France opens investigation into Lebanon's central bank head

MENA

Published: 2021-06-06 12:19

Last Updated: 2024-03-28 15:09


Source: Alsiasi
Source: Alsiasi

After the Swiss judiciary, the French judiciary is looking into the case of wealth owned in Europe by the governor of the Lebanese Central Bank, Riad Salameh, who has become a hated figure among the Lebanese people, at a time when his country is plunged into the worst economic crisis in its history.

Two weeks after receiving two complaints targeting Salameh and his circles, the National Financial Prosecution Office in France opened a preliminary investigation into the case of “criminal conspiracy” and “money laundering in an organized gang,” a source close to the file told AFP on Sunday, confirming information provided by a judicial source.

It is assumed that the investigations will allow, in particular, to clarify the source of the great wealth owned by Salameh, 70.

Salameh came to power in the Central Bank of Lebanon in 1993, after working for 20 years as an investment banker for Merrill Lynch in Beirut and Paris. He remained an influential figure who is highly regarded in the Lebanese political arena and in the world of economy.

But at a time when Lebanon is facing an unprecedented economic crisis and is considered one of the worst in the world since the middle of the nineteenth century, according to the World Bank, Salameh, who is close to the Hariri family, has now become one of the figures most hated by the Lebanese public. 

Lebanese public opinion suspects that Salameh, like other senior officials in the country, secretly transferred large sums of money abroad in conjunction with the popular movement in October 2019, despite the strict restrictions imposed by banks.

While an investigation in Switzerland was targeting Salameh about "money laundering (...) in connection with a possible embezzlement of funds from the Banque du Liban", in April two complaints were filed against him in France, where he owns several properties and from where suspicious sums of money may have crossed.

According to the French newspaper "Le Monde," the first complaint was submitted by the Swiss institution "Accountability Now."

- 'Global investigation with a European dimension' -

The second complaint was submitted by the “Sherpa” organization, which is active in combating major financial crimes, and the “Association of Victims of Fraud and Criminal Practices in Lebanon,” which was established by depositors who lost their money in the crisis that the country has been witnessing since 2019.

Lawyers for "Sherpa" and the Lebanese Society, William Bourdon and Amelie Lefevre, welcomed the announcement of the opening of the French investigation, considering it "a huge and global investigation with a European dimension."

"Huge money laundering operations will be considered, which should open all the drawers of the mafia that brought Lebanon to its knees," they said.

Their complaint, seen by AFP, accuses Salameh and four people around him, his brother Raja, his son Nadi, his nephew and his close assistant, Marian Howayk, of having amassed a huge fortune by fraud in Europe.

The two organizations call on the judiciary to investigate the widespread flight of Lebanese capital since the beginning of the crisis, the acquisition of luxury real estate that is not commensurate with the incomes of the persons targeted in the complaint, and the responsibility of financial intermediaries, through tax havens and pseudonyms.

According to the complaint, "the global wealth" of Riad Salameh "currently exceeds two billion dollars."

It also states that "the value of his assets in Luxembourg amounted to 94 million dollars in 2018."

The complaint is based in particular on information disclosed by the Lebanese website "Daraj" and the investigations of the "Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project" platform.

Salameh stresses that all his money is authorized and legal, and that he accumulated his wealth from what he inherited and through his career in the financial sector.

According to Le Monde newspaper, the governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon clarifies that his "personal assets amounted to $23 million" when he took office in 1993, and that "the increase in his wealth since then has resulted from investments that do not conflict with the obligations associated with his duties," which Lebanese legal experts deny.

This new investigation of the French National Financial Prosecution falls within the framework of cases called "unlawful gains", which are files through which the French judiciary scrutinizes, paid by non-governmental organizations, the source of the wealth of foreign leaders in France, especially Africans and Middle Easterners, that they may have collected from Public funds embezzled from their countries.