Shocking! Lebanese Central Bank Ex-chief Exposed in Bribery Scandal: Faces Unprecedented International Sanctions!

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The US, UK and Canada have imposed sanctions on former Lebanese central bank governor Riad Salameh over allegations that he abused his office’s powers “to engage in a series of illegal self-enrichment schemes”.

The sanctions, announced Thursday by the US Treasury and the UK Foreign Office, were imposed 10 days after Salameh he stopped from a 30-year mandate at the helm of the Banque du Liban.

The Treasury statement confirmed that the United States is acting alongside Canada and the United Kingdom, “partners who share the United States’ vision of a Lebanon governed for the benefit of the Lebanese people and not for the personal wealth and ambition of the ‘Lebanese elite ”.

The Treasury said the action did not apply to the BdL, adding: “Neither the central bank nor its assets should be considered frozen as a result of today’s action.”

Once praised to stabilize LebanonAfter years of precarious financial instability, Salameh has come under intense scrutiny since the country’s financial collapse in 2019, which plunged three-quarters of the population into poverty.

He has been dogged by allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement at the BdL and is blamed by swathes of the Lebanese public for their misfortunes. The Lebanese pound has lost more than 98% of its value against the dollar since 2019.

Salameh’s “corrupt and illegal actions have contributed to the collapse of the rule of law in Lebanon,” the Treasury statement said.

The United States also targeted four close associates of Salameh who “helped to conceal and facilitate” his corruption. I am her brother Raja, son Nady, ex-girlfriend Anna Kosakova and assistant Marianne Hoayek. The UK and Canada did not sanction Nady, a British citizen. Canada did not sanction Kosakova.

As a result, all their assets in sanctioning countries will be blocked. US sanctions also prevent US citizens or lenders from transacting with them. UK sanctions also include travel bans.

Over the past two years, European prosecutors in several countries, including Switzerland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and Lebanon, have been investigate Salamehsome of his family members and close associates for allegations that he had illicitly enriched himself and laundered hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds for personal gain.

Investigators say Salameh and his brother Raja embezzled about $330 million from the central bank between 2002 and 2015 through transactions at Forry Associates, an offshore firm owned by Raja.

“Hoayek has joined Salameh and Raja in this venture by transferring hundreds of millions of dollars – far more than her official BdL accounted salary – from her bank account to those of Salameh and Raja,” the Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement. United States Treasury (Ofac).

Those funds were then funneled through layers of shell companies to invest in real estate in European capitals, Lebanon and New York via property management companies “registered in the name of Salameh’s son Nady or Salameh’s former partner Anna Kosakova,” Ofac said.

Ofac also noted another “plan” in which Salameh allegedly used shell companies in Panama and a trust in Luxembourg to hide his identity while he bought shares in a company where his son Nady worked as an investment advisor, only to then sell those shares to a BdL-regulated Lebanese bank.

“This sale represents both a conflict of interest and a likely violation of a Lebanese law that prohibits BdL employees from profiting from other private businesses,” Ofac’s statement said.

In March 2022, more than $130 million of investigation-related assets were frozen by EU law agency Eurojust. In May, French prosecutors for financial crimes issued a warrant for Salameh’s arrest after he failed to appear at a Paris hearing to be questioned about the case. Germany followed suit, with both countries referring warrants to Interpol.

Both Riad and Raja Salameh have strenuously denied any wrongdoing. Riad Salameh has repeatedly insisted that his wealth comes from his previous job as an investment banker and from his family legacy.

Nady Salameh, Kosakova and Hoayek did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Riad Salameh did not appear at the hearing in Beirut on Wednesday. He was summoned as part of the Lebanese judiciary’s own investigation, which has repeatedly stalled due to what critics have described as political interference, including revocation from the roll of a judge who was conducting one of the investigations into the former head of the bank.

Despite the litany of accusations, he still wins the support of some of Lebanon’s powerful political leaders.

“This action demonstrates that no one is beyond responsibility,” Barbara Leaf, the US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said Thursday. “It’s not about a man. We have clear eyes on the endemic corruption that afflicts Lebanon”.

“Riad Salameh and his close associates have robbed the Lebanese people and deprived them of resources crucial to their economic and social stability,” said Lord Tariq Ahmad, UK Middle East minister. “The only way to put Lebanon on the path to much-needed economic recovery is for its leaders to stamp out corruption and implement real reforms.”