Lebanon's central bank joins inquiry into alleged corruption by former chief Riad Salameh

French lawyer William Bourdon tells The National he expects a trial in France by 2025

Riad Salameh is suspected of having embezzled more than $330 million in public money through a slush fund set up at Lebanon's central bank when he was governor. Reuters

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Lebanon’s central bank has joined the investigation into alleged embezzlement by its former governor, said William Bourdon, the lawyer who initially brought legal action against Riad Salameh in France, on Friday.

The move could trigger new developments in the corruption case and provide access to key banking documents that have been kept secret at the institution until now. It has been initiated under the new management of the Banque du Liban (BDL), headed by Wassim Mansouri since last July.

A senior official confirmed the development, adding that the BDL has been a civil party in Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Lebanon for months.

Mr Salameh is suspected of having embezzled more than $330 million in public money through a slush fund set up at the central bank for him and his family to acquire properties in Europe and the US. The central bank is legally considered an aggrieved party due to the alleged crimes of its former head.

“When a bank becomes a civil party against a former head, it means that it is now a victim and has the right to be compensated for the damages suffered,” Mr Bourdon told The National.

Mr Salameh has denied any wrongdoing in the corruption cases brought against him.

The news of BDL joining the investigation was a “positive step”, Mr Bourdon said, but he remained cautious regarding its co-operation in the case with a foreign judiciary.

“There are signs of significant flows in BDL's accounts that explain how the Salameh clan operated. They have not been brought to the judge's attention until now,” he said.

“If the civil party [the central bank] co-operates in good faith, it could help open new chapters. Will it do so? That's the question. If not, it would reveal the opportunistic nature of the move.”

Several European countries, including France, are investigating Mr Salameh over alleged embezzlement.

Once lauded as a financial wizard, Mr Salameh is now widely seen as one of the main reasons behind Lebanon's unprecedented economic collapse.

He has repeatedly denied all allegations.

The French lawyer said that in some cases civil parties have effectively acted as a “shield to prevent prosecutions against the legal entity” by withholding crucial information.

Fast-paced investigation

As an international lawyer, Mr Bourdon has focused on the restitution of ill-gotten assets, known in French as “biens mal acquits”, a phrase which refers to the fortunes of corrupt leaders from poorer countries sheltered in western capitals.

He said the French investigation into Mr Salameh is one of “the fastest and most intensely conducted” with which he has been involved.

He expects the inquiry to be concluded in 2025, followed by a trial.

The probe was opened in 2021, after Mr Bourdon and French lawyer Amelie Lefebvre lodged a complaint before the French National Financial Prosecutor's Office on behalf of the anti-corruption NGO Sherpa in 2021, along with the Collectif des Victimes des Pratiques Frauduleuses et Criminelles au Liban.

It quickly gained momentum, with the creation of an international investigative team involving Germany and Luxembourg, resulting in €120 million ($132 million) of assets tied to Mr Salameh being frozen in 2023 through joint action.

Riad Salameh speaks during his days as Lebanon's central bank governor. Reuters

In May 2023, the French judiciary issued an arrest warrant for Riad Salameh.

It had previously ordered the investigation of four people apparently involved in the alleged embezzlement scandal; Mr Salameh's romantic partner, Anna Kosakova, Lebanese banker Marwan Kheireddine, Marianne Hoayek, a senior adviser at the BDL and a former assistant to the Mr Salameh, and Antoine Gholam, the manager of Lebanese auditor firm, BDO Semaan.

In the same year Mr Salameh also had an Interpol red notice issued against him and had sanctions imposed by the US, UK and Canada, while a multimillion-dollar property empire was seized.

Mr Bourdon said he expected new developments and names to be implicated.

“There are still missing pieces of the puzzle that the French investigating judges are working on,” Mr Bourdon said.

“This could potentially extend to new individuals.”

In the event of a conviction, the funds could be returned to the aggrieved parties – in this case, the BDL or the state, which has been a civil party in the French case since March 2023.

This paves the way for Lebanon to recover the alleged embezzled funds in the long run if Mr Salameh is convicted, in line with France's 2021 law on ill-gotten assets, which requests guarantees that recovered funds will not be returned to the same corrupt network.

New inquiries

Mr Bourdon, on behalf of Sherpa, the anti-corruption organisation he founded, has set his sights on other major figures of Lebanon's political elite.

In April, he filed a complaint with French prosecutors along with French lawyer Vincent Brengarth, accusing Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati of alleged money laundering. The Mikati family has denied the allegations.

“Additional elements have been provided to the PNF [France's National Prosecutor's Office] and we are waiting for their response,” Mr Bourdon said, adding that he is expecting bridges between the Salameh and Mikati files to be revealed.

Mr Bourdon said he is also considering filing another complaint to investigate the conditions under which billions of dollars were transferred abroad at the onset of the crisis in October 2019.

These large sums allegedly benefited well-connected Lebanese elite, while most depositors were locked out of their savings as the national currency spiralled on the parallel market, losing 98 per cent of its value.

Regarding potential new complaints, Mr Bourdon said they are working on new files over which the French judiciary could have legal jurisdiction and which could “concern prominent figures or banks”.

As the foreign judiciary gathers momentum on the Lebanese corruption file, local inquiries into financial corruption have ground to a halt due to political intervention.

One investigation into Mr Salameh that opened in 2021 has faced considerable hurdles and is now in limbo.

Yet, Mr Bourdon said he remains hopeful.

“A legal procedure cannot itself unsettle predation mechanisms in a country, but it can push to a threshold from which fear can start to shift,” he said.

“We are far from this, but we must remain hopeful of reaching this point."