This is another important step in a case emblematic of the economic crisis in Lebanon. The investigations opened in France on the rich heritage in Europe of Riad Salamé, governor of the Banque du Liban, have been entrusted to Parisian anti-corruption investigating judges, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) announced on Friday July 16.
The PNF opened on July 2 “Judicial investigation against X of the counts of money laundering in organized gangs and criminal associations”. The latter had been conducting a preliminary investigation since the end of May following two complaints filed by associations against Mr. Salamé and his entourage, also targeted by investigations in Switzerland and a complaint in the United Kingdom.
The investigating judges of the financial center of the Paris court appointed in this case benefit from more extensive investigative powers, in particular in matters of international cooperation or possible seizures of property of suspects. Complainant associations will also benefit from access to investigations and will be able to request investigative acts from magistrates.
“Laundering of gigantic sums”
“We called for the opening of a judicial investigation which will allow us to have access to the file”, reacted Pierre-Olivier Sur, lawyer of Riad Salamé, who “Disputes the facts as a whole”. This legal procedure is based on the complaints lodged in April in Paris by the Swiss foundation Accountability Now, on the one hand, and, on the other, by the NGO Sherpa and the Collective of victims of fraudulent and criminal practices in France. Lebanon, made up of savers looted in the crisis that has hit the country since 2019.
“It is a whole systemic mechanism of evaporation and laundering of gigantic sums which will be brought to light”, for their part reacted William Bourdon and Amélie Lefebvre, lawyers of Sherpa and the collective.
The French investigations, parallel to those carried out for several months in Switzerland, should in particular make it possible to clarify the origin of the rich real estate heritage of Mr. Salamé, a figure now hated by his people as the country sinks into the worst economic crisis. of its history.
Several of his relatives, in particular his brother, his son and his nephew, are also targeted by the associations. They also ask to examine the responsibilities of intermediaries and banks involved in the establishment of complex international financial arrangements around this heritage.
Riad Salamé, 71, has repeatedly defended himself in the media, believing to be the ” scapegoat “ of the economic crisis. He claims to have legally grown the assets of 23 million dollars (19.5 million euros) he held in 1993, when he took office as governor of the central bank. This heritage came, according to him, from two inheritances and from the income received when he worked for the investment bank Merrill Lynch, in Beirut and in Paris.
