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7h ago

Lebanon Indicts Ex-Central Bank Chief Over $44.8 Million, Transfers Case to Court of Cassation

The move places the case under the Court of Cassation’s final jurisdiction.

Longtime chief of Lebanon's Central Bank Riad Salameh, poses as he leaves office after a 30-year tenure, at Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon July 31, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/ File Photo
FILE - Then Lebanon's Central Bank governor Riad Salameh listens to a journalist's question during a press conference, in Beirut, Lebanon, Nov. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
On January 13, Riad Salameh, former governor of Lebanon's central bank, was charged along with two lawyers over alleged embezzlement of $44.8 million. EPA

Overview

  • Prosecutors charged Riad Salameh and lawyers Marwan Issa el-Khoury and Michel John Tueni with embezzlement, forgery and illicit enrichment tied to a central bank consultancy account.
  • No trial date has been set, and judicial officials say failure to appear could trigger arrest warrants at the non-appealable top court.
  • Salameh was detained for about 13 months and released in September on more than $14 million bail; he remains under a travel ban and denies wrongdoing.
  • Judges approved a request to widen probes into how funds moved through banks without required notifications to the central bank’s Special Investigation Commission.
  • Banque du Liban will act as a plaintiff in the Forry Associates inquiry, as parallel European investigations and prior U.S., U.K. and Canadian sanctions continue.