Abdul Menhem Youssef Questioned over 'Embezzlement, Negligence'

OGERO Telecom chief Abdul Menhem Youssef was interrogated Friday by the Central Inspection Bureau over charges of negligence and embezzlement, MTV reported.

“Judge George Awwad has summoned Youssef to question him over several issues related to his negligence in preserving public funds in the Internet file and another case related to embezzling money from the employees' salaries under the excuse of the VAT tax,” MTV said.

The embezzlement lawsuit was filed by former Telecom Minister Charbel Nahhas, the TV network said.

“Judge Awwad has asked Abdul Menhem Youssef to provide answers regarding 45 reports filed against him,” MTV said.

The Central Inspection chief is supposed to appoint an independent panel of experts to assess Youssef's answers once they are received by the Bureau, the TV network added.

Youssef “will have a specific deadline to provide answers regarding the charges,” MTV said.

“Lawsuits over Abdul Menhem Youssef's violations and embezzlement have been accumulating since 2009 and informed sources have said that Judge Awwad only received them from investigators in late 2015 amid unjustified delay,” the TV network added.

On Thursday, An Nahar daily said four illegal internet stations have been proven to exist so far in the mountainous terrains of Dinniyeh, Oyoun al-Siman, Faqra and Zaarour.

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil has said that the smuggled internet costs the state around $200 million in lost revenues every year.

Early in March, the media and telecom parliamentary committee unveiled that there is a “mafia” that is taking advantage of illicit internet services by installing internet stations that are not subject to state control.

The owners of these stations are buying international internet bandwidth with nominal cost from Turkey and Cyprus which they are selling back to Lebanese subscribers at reduced prices, reports have said.

Y.R.