Lebanon’s central bank targets offshore network tied to ex-governor Riad Salame |
Lebanon’s long-troubled financial sector has entered a new and consequential phase as the country’s central bank moves to reclaim funds allegedly siphoned off during the tenure of former governor Riad Salame. In a rare and forceful public intervention, Central Bank Governor Karim Souaid announced that Banque du Liban (BDL) has filed a legal complaint against a former senior bank official and a former banker, accusing them of illicit enrichment and embezzlement through offshore shell companies. The legal action, Governor Souaid said, is aimed at recovering misappropriated funds that could be used to partially compensate depositors who have been locked out of their savings since Lebanon’s financial collapse.
Although Souaid declined to publicly identify the individuals targeted by the complaint, the move comes against the backdrop of ongoing domestic and international investigations into Salame, who ran Lebanon’s central bank for three decades and is widely seen as a central figure in one of the largest financial scandals in the country’s history. Salame has been accused of embezzling more than $300 million in public funds between 2002 and 2015, a period during which Lebanon’s banking system projected an image of stability even as structural weaknesses deepened beneath the surface.
Speaking at a press conference, Souaid emphasized that the central bank would pursue all legal and judicial avenues against anyone found to have misused BDL funds. “Legal and judicial