2023-08-15 14:46:55
A new blow was dealt to the former Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, this time local. After the American, Canadian and British economic sanctions once morest him, the Special Investigation Commission for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing at the Banque du Liban issued, on Monday, a decision to freeze his bank accounts and partners and to lift their confidentiality regarding the auditor. the competent judicial authority.
The new development in the Salama prosecution file, issued by the First Deputy Governor of the Banque du Liban, Acting Governor, Wassim Mansouri, in his capacity as head of the Special Investigation Commission, also affected Marian Hamid Al-Hawik, Anna Kozakova (Ukrainian), Nadi Riad Salameh, and Raja Tawfiq Salameh.
An audit of the bank’s accounts, conducted by Alvarez & Marsal, urged steps to mitigate the financial risks resulting from “misconduct” and noted that the bank’s former governor had “unlimited” power while pursuing costly financial engineering policies. Archyde.com”.
The audit concluded that “illegal commissions” amounting to $111 million were paid from an account at the Central Bank between 2015 and 2020, explaining that this appears to be a continuation of a plan that was the reason for the start of investigations with the former governor of the bank, Riad Salameh, at home and abroad.
The head of the Cases Authority at the Ministry of Justice, Judge Helena Iskandar, sent a letter to the Minister of Finance, Youssef Al-Khalil, in which she requested that she be provided as quickly as possible with a copy of the criminal audit that donor countries demanded to be conducted following the financial collapse that Lebanon was subjected to, which prevented most depositors from obtaining their savings. Since 2019, it has caused the local currency to lose its value and widen poverty.
The Banque du Liban made it possible to buy dollars at a price lower than that offered in the parallel market, through the exchange platform, completing the international track
The Special Investigation Commission’s decision comes in the context of completing the international track more than it is a decision specific to Lebanon, according to what the academic and researcher in business and banking law, Dr. Sabine Al-Kik, believes, who indicated that “it is natural following the decision of the US Treasury Department that imposed sanctions on the accounts of Salameh and his partners.” That banks around the world, not just the Central Bank of Lebanon, deal with the accounts of these people as a result of the American decision.
Legally, the commission’s decision requires, according to what Al-Kik explains to the “Al-Hurra” website, “Lebanese banks must disclose to the commission all current and previous accounts of Salameh and his partners, as well as stop working with them, despite my belief that there are no current accounts for the former ruler in Lebanese banks, and not knowing the extent of the commission’s audacity. The investigation presented his old accounts and the movement of his bank transfers to the judiciary, especially since the report of the Fires & Marsal company referred to transfers in his accounts and partners, but a large number of regulations deleted the names from them under the cover of bank secrecy.
And instead of “declaring a state of emergency at the governmental and parliamentary level, to find out how to deal with the criminal audit report that referred to countless criminal suspicions, the issue is bypassed as if it had not happened,” the House of Representatives will meet, according to Al-Kik, “to pass a hybrid capital control law, under the umbrella of secrecy. banking, so discretionary law is prescribed, and all previous transfers abroad are considered new money.
And the US Treasury announced, on the tenth of this month, that the United States, Canada and Britain had jointly imposed economic sanctions on charges of financial corruption on Salama, who recently left office without appointing a successor.
The ministry said in a statement that “Salama’s corrupt and illegal activities contributed to the collapse of the state of law in Lebanon,” noting that it imposed these sanctions in coordination with Britain and Canada, and the sanctions also included members of Salama’s family and those close to him.
The ministry’s statement added that “Salame abused his position of power, likely in violation of Lebanese law, in order to enrich himself and his partners by transferring hundreds of millions of dollars through shell sub-companies to invest in real estate in Europe.”
Riad Salameh held his position for nearly three decades, focusing on the judiciary
The Special Investigation Commission’s procedure from the perspective of the specialized lawyer and lecturer in banking laws and economic affairs, Dr. Ali Zbeeb, “is almost normal for every person whose name appears on the US economic sanctions lists, especially since Salameh and those whose names were mentioned are on the list of the Office of Foreign Assets Control.”
Zabib explains in an interview with Al-Hurra that “American law is not applicable in all countries of the world, but on the other hand, Lebanese banks depend on American correspondent banks in all their international dealings, and American law requires every American banking institution not to deal with any institution that does not comply with the sanctions.” And if a Lebanese bank announces that it does not want to abide by these sanctions and their consequences, an American penalty may be imposed on it, just as the American bank that deals with it is obligated and forced to sever the correspondent relationship, and there is no Lebanese bank, like most banks in the world, that can continue without the correspondent bank relationship. American”.
In conclusion, it becomes clear, according to Zbib, that “Lebanese banks are obligated to abide by any sanctions issued once morest any person in the world, except that Circular 137 obligated them to deal with all US sanctions decisions in a mandatory manner, that is, by freezing all assets related to the person placed on the list of economic sanctions and returning his money.” But because of the economic crisis, there is no bank that can return the money, and therefore there is a major imbalance in dealing with the issue of refunding money in the matter of US sanctions.
And the safety of an extraordinary person, whose name was mentioned on the sanctions list and faces criminal charges and allegations in Lebanon and abroad, so according to Zbib, “the Special Investigation Commission froze his accounts, first to show a desire to cooperate before the international community and the American financial authorities, and secondly to absorb the popular outburst once morest the deputies of the Governor of the Banque du Liban.” And to show that the Banque du Liban, with its new and temporary administration, has a large margin of independence, and that the governor’s deputies who manage the governorship do not follow Salameh’s approach, and they have reached the point of freezing its accounts, placing it under monitoring and tracking, and entering into investigative procedures in its accounts through the Special Investigation Commission, which is by law an independent body. “.
And Salama, who assumed the governance of the Lebanese Central Bank for 30 years, was prosecuted in Europe and Lebanon on charges of embezzling funds, at a time when the Cedars country is suffering from the worst economic crisis in its modern history, as it is “a cornerstone of the financial system that served the special interests of the main factions in Lebanon following the 1975 civil war.” -1990, and observers say that these factions fear that his fall will have repercussions on them, “according to Archyde.com.
Last May, an arrest warrant was issued once morest Salameh from the International Police Organization (Interpol), following France issued a warrant for his arrest as part of its investigation into whether he had embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars from public funds, and Germany issued an arrest warrant once morest him.
The reliance now, according to Al-Kik, is “on the Lebanese judiciary and the public prosecution. We must monitor how they move following the criminal audit report, which referred to suspicions of crime in more than one place,” stressing “the credibility of the Lebanese judiciary at stake. The credibility of honorable judges is not enough to restore confidence in this constitutional authority, the eyes of society.” Will it be a categorical sword in the stage of accountability and accountability, or is it part of the sectors that must be held accountable?
“The decision issued by the Special Investigation Commission came late, but it is still better than never issued.” Nevertheless, it is certain, as Zbeeb says, that “Salama is still protected by the Lebanese political authority, because he is the one who covered all the violations and was aware of the secrets of the transfers.” And state lending and waste of money, in addition to being the first engineer of financial engineering, and the existing political system will continue to protect it because its occurrence will lead to a series of collapses in this system, and the criminal audit report highlighted a large number of those who claimed to support depositors’ cases and attacked Salama, as it turns out that they follow him.
Zbib concludes, warning that “the solution is still far away, and there must be a clear decision of accountability with the aim of prosecuting all illegal transactions and obliging those who carried out them to return them, in order to protect depositors and with the aim of returning their deposits, while giving priority to legitimate deposits, and holding the owners of illegal deposits accountable.”
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