By Timour Azhari
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s top prosecutor has sought to freeze European bank accounts belonging to central bank chief Riad Salameh, a senior judicial source said, days after five European states seized assets related to embezzlement probes.
Salameh is facing investigations in Lebanon and at least five European countries into the alleged embezzlement of some $330 million in public funds with the help of his brother, Raja, charges they have both denied.
Europe’s criminal justice coordination body on Monday announced that 120 million euros of Lebanese assets had been frozen in France, Germany, Luxembourg, Monaco and Belgium linked to an embezzlement investigation. German prosecutors said the move was tied to probes into Salameh.
The senior judicial source confirmed to Reuters that Public Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat on Wednesday sent a letter to Lebanon’s Justice Ministry informing them he had requested the freezing of assets belonging to Salameh and his associates in Swiss, French, Belgian, German and Luxembourg banks.
The source said the letter came as part Salameh’s prosecution for embezzlement of public funds, tax evasion and money laundering, but did not specify whether it was in relation to the Lebanese or foreign probes into the governor.
Since Lebanon’s financial collapse began in 2019, Riad Salameh has faced increasing scrutiny of his nearly three decades as the head of the Banque du Liban (BDL).
He says his personal wealth was acquired during his time as a banker before he became governor and has said the probes against him are politically motivated.
He was charged last week with illicit enrichment days after his brother was arrested and charged with helping the governor launder the proceeds of ill-gotten gains in a case relating to the purchase and rental of Paris apartments, including to BDL.
Both deny the charges.
Helena Iskandar, the head of the Justice Ministry’s Cases Authority to which Oueidat’s letter was sent, told Reuters she had immediately asked Lebanon’s finance minister to assist her with appointing lawyers abroad in order to seek the freezing of funds belonging to the governor and his associates and assert the Lebanese state’s claim to them.
She said this was a necessary step without which the process could not proceed.
Current Finance Minister Youssef Khalil spent nearly four decades at the central bank – three of them under Salameh – before taking his post last year.
Ouediat did not respond to a request for comment on whether his move to freeze the assets was based on Lebanese evidence in the probe into Salameh, or an attempt to pre-empt the assets being seized by European authorities.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari; Editing by Maya Gebeily and Nick Macfie)
