Luxurious offices on the prestigious Avenue des Champs-Elysees, an ex-French central banker and a mysterious Ukrainian woman in Paris. This seemingly eclectic list has a common denominator: a connection to Lebanese central bank governor Riad Salameh, who is suspected of having embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds.
There is a lot we know about in the French investigation into Mr Salameh in relation to multimillion-euro luxury apartments in Paris bought with funds allegedly misappropriated from Lebanon's central bank.
The assets under scrutiny include undeclared Banque du Liban offices at 66 Avenue des Champs-Elysees leased to Eciffice Business Centre for €5 million from 2011 to 2021, as revealed in French judicial documents obtained by The National.
Eciffice's manager, Anna Kosakova, a 46-year-old Ukrainian woman, is Mr Salameh's romantic partner of over two decades, with whom he has a daughter. She drew a monthly salary of €2,000 from the company.
These offices were supposed to be a “recovery centre” providing a back-up server in case of failure in the Beirut main office, but turned out to have “no operational justification”, according to the French judiciary.
But the tangled web of evidence keeps unravelling, with new information and characters coming to light.
One such figure is Christian Noyer. The former French central banker, who held the position of head of the institution from 2003 to 2015, became the subject of a separate preliminary investigation launched by the France National Financial Prosecutor's Office in April 2022 around the allegation of an illegal conflict of interest, as confirmed by a French judicial source speaking to The National.
'Lack of denunciation of the anomalies'
This is where the three threads merge.
According to the judicial documents, Mr Noyer has come under scrutiny by the French judiciary for receiving a total of €80,000 from Lebanon's central bank for consultancy services in 2018 to develop a digital currency in the country through his company Cn Europa Conseil.
Mr Noyer also allegedly failed to declare to the French central bank the consultancy services he billed to Lebanon's central bank, in violation of French law.
Former governors are required to obtain authorisation from the Banque de France to engage in any professional activities for three years after their term ends, as they continue to receive financial compensation.
The judiciary suspects that these transfers might have been used as compensation in exchange for leniency regarding the undisclosed Banque du Liban Paris offices rented to Mr Salameh's partner.
The 66 Avenue des Champs-Elysees address had indeed raised significant suspicions under French law, as Lebanese authorities were legally bound to declare the Banque du Liban offices, a requirement for any banking institution operating within the country.
However, the Banque de Francetold both the judiciary and the media that these offices were not officially registered in France.
The French judge also noticed a slew of irregularities, on top of a potential conflict of interest. The irregularities include the significantly higher prices charged to Banque du Liban – 32 per cent more than another client – as well as the near-empty state of the offices discovered during a police raid in October 2021.
“It cannot be ruled out at this stage that these payments not declared to the Banque de France” were compensating the “lack of reporting of the anomalies” related to the payments for Banque du Liban's Parisian offices, the French judge wrote in a seizing order.
The payments made from the Lebanese central bank to Eciffice should have been easily detectable, as they were done through the Banque de France.
Former French central bank governor Christian Noyer. Getty Images
Mr Noyer provided undisclosed consultancy services to other clients. These included the Bank of Beirut, which is managed by Lebanese banker Salim Sfeir, and French banking group Credit Agricole.
The value of these undeclared consultancies was a total of €198,345, according to correspondence between the Banque de France and the French judiciary seen by The National.
The same document indicates that Mr Noyer reimbursed this amount to the Banque de Franceafter the investigation into Mr Salameh exposed the truth.
The preliminary investigation is continuing.
Neither Mr Noyer nor Mr Salameh responded to The National's repeated requests for comment.
Mr Salameh has consistently maintained his innocence, claiming that no public funds were deposited into his accounts.
'You have to ask Riad Salameh'
Since it began in 2021, the French investigation into Mr Salameh has swiftly gained momentum under the supervision of judge Aude Buresi, with the issuing of an arrest warrant for the governor, closely followed by an Interpol red notice.
The French judiciary has also put three people under formal investigation – his former aide, Marianne Hoayek, Ms Kosakova, and the Lebanese banker Marwan Kheireddine.
The 66 Avenue des Champs-Elysees property is only a small part of the probe, with €5 million allegedly embezzled.
But the scheme appears to be much broader: Mr Salameh is suspected of having embezzled $330 million of public funds through his brother's company Forry, an alleged shell company that is accused of siphoning off funds through a 0.38 per cent commission levied on transactions between Lebanese banks and the central bank.
The proceeds from these commissions enabled Mr Salameh and his inner circle to amass a significant real estate portfolio across Europe, including properties valued at a minimum of €14.3 million ($15 million) in upscale neighbourhoods of Paris.
The properties have been seized by the judiciary as part of a joint anti-money laundering scheme co-ordinated by Eurojust, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Co-operation.
The 66 Avenue des Champs-Elysees was leased by Riad Salameh's romantic partner to the central bank for €5 million from 2010 to 2021. Google Street View
The intricate flow of funds from the Lebanese central bank to Europe shows a complex scheme, involving “layering” operations often associated with “money laundering” practices, the French judge wrote.
In France, Ms Kosakova, whose connection with the governor and role in his dealings had remained a closely guarded secret for decades, even among those well-versed in the inner workings of the Banque du Liban, assumed a pivotal role in the Parisian purchases.
She described Mr Salameh to the French police, who quizzed her for two days in July last year, as the “love of her life”, and described a man with a “brilliant career in finance, before he became governor”, during her hearing with fraud squad detectives, which led her to be formally investigated, as first revealed by French investigative journal Mediapart in December.
Ms Kosakova said that the two met in 1999, while he was already married, two years after she completed her studies in economics in Ukraine. She said they would see each for other one week every month and still “call each other three to four times a day”, in the minutes of the hearing, seen by The National.
From 2007, the pair shared a residence in 65 Avenue Gorges Mandel, in the heart of Paris's upscale 16th arrondissement, another property suspected to have been bought with Lebanese public funds.
The same year Mr Salameh recognised as his own daughter Ms Kosakova's child E. Salameh, born in 2005.
From 2015, Ms Kosakova started to assume a central role in the two Luxembourg-based companies related to the purchases in Paris: SCI ZEL, a real estate investment company, and its parent company, BET SA, an asset management firm.
That year, she became the sole shareholder of BET SA as well the manager of SCI ZEL, previously managed by Mr Salameh's brother, who also transferred his 1 per cent stake in SCI ZEL to her.
BET SA, which owns the 99 per cent remaining, injected more than €17 million into SCI ZEL to finance the Parisian real estate acquisition.
These millions “come from Riad Salameh”, Ms Kosakova told the police.
The European judiciary managed to trace the origin of these funds back to Forry's account at Lebanon's central bank through the two Luxembourg-based companies, before reaching France.
Ms Kosakova said she never asked more about the funds' origin, which left the police perplexed, considering she had been bestowed with “a multimillion-euro fortune” without having to “pay a single penny”, they told her.
“You have to ask Riad Salameh” and " I don't know”, she repeatedly told French police, according to documents.
Ms Kosakova's account of the events did little to convince the investigators, especially considering her “knowledge in economics”, and the suspicious financial flows across countries without any apparent “economic rationale”- except perhaps to “conceal the origin of the funds or the real owner”.
She was put under formal investigation for criminal conspiracy, organised money laundering and aggravated tax fraud laundering.
Ms Kosakova did not respond to The National's request for comment.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
Keep track of the job trends in your sector through the news. Apply for job alerts at your dream organisations and the types of jobs you want – LinkedIn uses AI to share similar relevant jobs based on your selections.
Double check that you’ve highlighted relevant skills on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
For most entry-level jobs, your resume will first be filtered by an applicant tracking system for keywords. Look closely at the description of the job you are applying for and mirror the language as much as possible (while being honest and accurate about your skills and experience).
Keep your CV professional and in a simple format – make sure you tailor your cover letter and application to the company and role.
Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
Don’t be afraid to reach outside your immediate friends and family to other acquaintances and let them know you are looking for new opportunities.
Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
Prepare for online interviews using mock interview tools. Even before landing interviews, it can be useful to start practising.
Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.
Arda Atalay, head of Mena private sector at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Rudy Bier, managing partner of Kinetic Business Solutions and Ben Kinerman Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz
Company profile
Name: Thndr
Started: October 2020
Founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
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Initial investment: pre-seed of $800,000
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Starring: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace
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The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
