On Friday, the investigating judge in Beirut, Charbel Abu Samra, finished listening to the statement of the Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salameh, regarding financial files, in the presence of European investigators.
Salameh – who has run the Central Bank since 1993 – gave his testimony before the investigating judge over two days, and answered questions posed by a European delegation regarding financial transfers between Lebanese and European banks.
Riad Salameh and his brother Raja are under investigation in Lebanon and at least 5 European countries, on suspicion of their involvement in the embezzlement of hundreds of millions of dollars from state funds. Both brothers deny the accusations.
The European investigations focus on the relationship between the Banque du Liban and the “Fore Associates” company, which is registered in the Virgin Islands and has an office in Beirut, and the economic beneficiary is the brother of the ruler, Raja Salameh.
It is believed that the company played the role of intermediary to purchase Eurobond treasury bonds from the Banque du Liban, by receiving a subscription commission that was transferred to Salameh’s accounts abroad.
Salameh said that his attendance at the investigation before the judge in Beirut was as a listener, not as a suspect or accused.
Defend the accused
He added that all the evidence he presented showed that the financial transfers he carried out outside Lebanon came from his personal account, not the Bank of Lebanon account.
Salameh also confirmed that the commissions paid to the Fawry company, owned by his brother Raja, were not paid from the accounts of the Banque du Liban, but rather from other parties.
Salameh said in a statement, “During the session, I confirmed the evidence and documents that I had submitted to the judiciary in Lebanon and abroad, with a precise explanation of them.”
He added, “It appears from these statements that my personal account in the Banque du Liban is not linked to the accounts in which funds belonging to the bank are deposited, and no funds from the Banque du Liban were transferred to my account.”
And on Wednesday, the Lebanese state, represented by Judge Helena Iskandar, the head of the Cases Authority at the Ministry of Justice, accused the Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, his brother Raja, and his assistant, Marianne Howayek, with crimes of bribery, forgery, use of counterfeits, money laundering, illegal enrichment, and tax evasion, and requested their arrest and seizure of their property.
Salameh denounced what he described as “bad faith and a thirst for prosecution” against him more than two years ago, by submitting complaints against him in Lebanon and abroad.
Salama constantly denies the accusations against him, considering that his prosecution comes in the context of a political and media operation to “tarnish” his image, and confirms that he accumulated his wealth from his previous work for two decades in the international financial institution “Merrill Lynch”, and from investments in several fields.
