President of the Central Bank of Lebanon is accused of embezzling millions of dollars and sending them to banks in Switzerland

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The Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung claims that the millionaire amount embezzled by Riad Salameh was transferred to 12 Swiss banks. Lebanon faces its worst economic crisis since 1850. President of the Central Bank of Lebanon is accused of embezzling millions of dollars John Guccione/Pexels Much of the 300 to 500 million dollars that the president of the Central Bank of Lebanon is accused of having embezzled was transferred to 12 Swiss banks, reports the Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung. According to the publication, 250 million dollars were deposited in the personal account of the president of the Central Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salameh, at the branch of HSBC bank in Geneva. Other amounts were transferred to UBS, Credit Suisse, Julius Baer, ​​EFG and Pictet banks, according to the magazine. The transactions were made through an offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands, called Forry Associates and created in 2001, he explains. “Sizable sums” were also transferred to buy real estate in several European countries. The information was published just days after a Lebanese judge accused Salameh, his brother Raja and former collaborator Marianne Hoayek of “embezzlement of public funds and money laundering”. Salameh, 72, who has headed the Central Bank of Lebanon since 1993, is at the center of several judicial investigations on suspicions of money laundering and “illicit enrichment”. He denies all accusations. The Swiss Public Prosecutor’s Office initiated criminal proceedings in October 2020, which have yet to be concluded. According to the newspaper, millions of dollars were frozen, but the MP does not reveal an exact amount. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority also investigates 12 banks in the country. Lebanon is facing one of the worst economic crises in the world, a collapse not seen since 1850, according to the World Bank. Among the consequences of the crisis is a vertiginous increase in prices, a historic devaluation of the local currency and the impoverishment of the population, in the midst of a serious shortage of products.

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