Report: U.S. Intensifies Investigation into Banking Deals in Lebanon
The United States is intensifying its scrutiny of Lebanon's financial system over concerns that Syria, Iran and Hizbullah are using Lebanese banks to evade international sanctions and fund their activities, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“The Treasury Department and Drug Enforcement Administration are continuing an aggressive probe into an alleged Hizbullah-linked money-laundering operation,” the Journal quoted U.S. officials as saying.
“They allege the operation involves hundreds of millions of dollars in drug-sales revenues from a Lebanese narco-trafficker that they say have gone” to Hizbullah, it said.
Senior U.S. officials told the Journal that the Treasury is also pressing Lebanese financial regulators to more closely monitor local banks that have operations in Syria and Iran.
"We're concerned about Lebanon being used as a channel by Syrians attempting to evade sanctions," said a senior Treasury official involved in Middle East policy.
But Central Bank governor Riyad Salameh told the Journal that deposits by Syrian nationals in Lebanese banks as well as loans to Syrians by these banks have decreased by 40 percent over the past 15 months.
Lebanon took such action after the Treasury accused the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of the drug lord with alleged links to Hizbullah.
The Central Bank interfered, allowing the Lebanese subsidiary of Societe Generale (SGBL) to acquire the assets of LCB.
But the U.S. official said the Treasury and the DEA are still concerned that hundreds of LCB suspicious accounts have been passed on to other financial institutions based in Lebanon.
There are also concerns that the bank’s former executives continue to operate in Lebanon's banking system, including at SGBL, they said.
"We're still working with the Lebanese authorities to understand what happened after we issued" the notice last year, said a senior Treasury Department official briefed on the case. "We still have a finding on the books."
27 April 2012, 13:04
34
The US will be ruling the world. Military bases in a lot of countries. They can sanction and starve any country who stands in their face. All in the name of democracy freedom and peace.
27 April 2012, 14:07
11
Flame thrower I like how you role, we should go for a drink one day
27 April 2012, 14:42
24
The USA is the greatest country in the world and if it wasn't for the US y'all will be speaking Russian, learning Stalin doctrine and no free speech like you are doing now. so be thankful or go to Iran or Syria or even better to N. Korea :)
27 April 2012, 17:50
12
FT, as usual you dwell in the past and you surely have no sense of the present and certainly no outward planning for the future, we should learn from the past not live in it...I sometimes feel sorry for you and the likes..so full of hate...ya haram.
27 April 2012, 18:08
12
this is a clear message to this m8 government to stop helping the syrian regime or else they shut us down.
27 April 2012, 18:55
00
Not only those parties are involved in money laundry but a lot of lebanese companies as well, a lot of politicians, business men, arabs, do not target only one side because of political difference, but that's how lebanese economy stands on its feet : Money laundry+ prostitution and drugs, tourism is only a cover...All lebanese banks are involved in money laundry business !! that's how you see expensive cars, not because salaries are high or all lebanese have companies ,again that is money laundry!!
27 April 2012, 21:56
00
You can look at the glass half full or half empty it's really up to you. You can have an endless list for the terrible mistakes the US have made, and the same goes for the great acheivements the US was responsible for. I guess it depends on through what glass you look at it.
The bottom line is the reality that when someone farts in wall street they shake the entire world. What I am trying to say that the entire world economy is dependent on the US and that's a fact.
28 April 2012, 02:04
00
Obviously if some Lebanese banks are being used for money laundering and illegal activity, this impacts the country, its people, its economy, and its in global trade. If the US treasury is pointing out a crime that affects the country, they are doing Lebanon something good. Fighting drug trafficking and money laundering is a global effort and Lebanon should be part of it. If Hizbullah became such a global crime organization, they should be fought way more vigorously than that. Monitoring banks is way too little to curb crime.
28 April 2012, 11:15
00
i think you meant russia and china want it to stay, if israel and america had their way syria would be a big wreck by now. we count for not very much but if we are seen helping a country under sanctions or militia involved in international drug trafficking we can also expect sanctions if we are lucky.
28 April 2012, 11:15
00
i think you meant russia and china want it to stay, if israel and america had their way syria would be a big wreck by now. we count for not very much but if we are seen helping a country or militia involved in drug trafficking we can also expect sanctions if we are lucky.
28 April 2012, 18:47
00
give me a break! the US want to pressure Lebanon into giving up its bank secrecy laws making all of our accounts and finances at the disposal of the CIA and Israel.
Maybe they should start with their own banks where the majority of money laundry in the world is happening.
