Lebanon’s veteran central bank chief charged with money laundering

Lebanon’s central financial institution governor Riad Salameh has been charged with illicit enrichment and cash laundering, the primary legal costs introduced in opposition to the veteran banker who many imagine performed a central function within the nation’s monetary meltdown.

A decide in Lebanon’s district court docket on Monday charged Riad Salameh and his brother Raja with cash laundering by means of a number of corporations they personal. Raja Salameh was arrested on Thursday and brought into custody. A Ukrainian girl, Anna Kosakova, was additionally charged on Monday of aiding them within the unlawful enrichment.

Decide Ghada Aoun is probing Riad Salameh’s funds in Lebanon. The fees stem from a lawsuit filed final week by a gaggle of activists, who accuse the brothers of embezzling public funds on the top of Lebanon’s financial meltdown by means of corporations belonging to the Salamehs.

The fees observe weeks of mounting tensions between Riad Salameh and his political opponents, deepening the scandal surrounding the long-running governor of the Banque du Liban. They have been the newest indication that the strain was ramping up on a determine as soon as seen as untouchable, analysts mentioned.

Decide Aoun issued a journey ban on Riad Salameh in January and in February issued a subpoena after he failed to look in court docket to be questioned over allegations of corruption and misconduct. State safety forces charged with bringing him earlier than the decide struggled to find him, prompting many to take a position that he had gone into hiding.

Riad Salameh maintains his innocence and has lengthy mentioned that his wealth was acquired throughout his years as an funding banker.

“Decide Aoun has prior to those costs used her personal tweets to specific hostile remark[s] in opposition to me. The legislation permits any Lebanese citizen to ask to be questioned by one other decide that’s non-biased. Ghada Aoun refused to implement the legislation and pressed costs. Actually, I’ve commissioned an audit agency to look at my wealth and its supply. The auditor confirmed that no public funds have been concerned within the build-up of my wealth,” Riad Salameh advised the Monetary Instances.

Though he was lengthy celebrated each at residence and overseas for managing Lebanon’s precarious funds, Riad Salameh has been the topic of accelerating scrutiny because the collapse of Lebanon’s financial system in 2019 by means of his mismanagement of Banque du Liban. The central banker can be going through investigations regarding his funds in a number of different international locations, together with France, Germany and Switzerland.

However politicians supportive of Riad Salameh, together with Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati, accuse President Michel Aoun of orchestrating a marketing campaign in opposition to the governor. Decide Aoun is taken into account near the top of state, though they aren’t associated.

The president has publicly blamed the central financial institution for the monetary disaster. However the prime minister, who’s a billionaire businessman, mentioned in December that Riad Salameh ought to stay in his put up, arguing that “one doesn’t change their officers throughout a conflict”. Final week, Mikati accused sure judges in Lebanon of exacerbating political tensions within the crisis-ridden nation.

Riad Salameh was charged in absentia, as he didn’t seem in court docket. Decide Aoun mentioned she had referred his case to a different decide who would resolve whether or not to subject an arrest warrant. Raja Salameh stays in custody.