Central Bank to Investigate Status of 135 Suspected of Links to al-Madina Bank
General Prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi handed over on Monday to the Central Bank's Special Investigation Commission a preliminary list of the names of several people to monitor and probe if they have links to the al-Madina Bank scandal.
According to the state-run National News Agency, the commission received the names of 135 people that might have connections to the fraud case at al-Madina and money laundering.
The names on the list will be thoroughly investigated, according to the news agency.
An experts committee, tasked with probing the fraud case at al-Madina, handed to Judge Madi in April a report that includes the names of 411 suspects that received suspicious funds from the bank.
The committee was formed when the bank's millions of dollars of fraud erupted in 2003 to investigate money laundering.
Judge Madi tasked in February the committee to probe the amount and the reasons of the payments made.
Rana Koleilat, who was accused of playing a key role in the fraud case at al-Madina Bank, revealed in February that she will hand over to authorities the names of her accomplices.
During 12 years at the private al-Madina bank, Koleilat rose from clerk to executive.
It was an era in which Syria dominated Lebanon and when paying off Syrian intelligence agents and providing gifts to powerful politicians was common.
Koleilat was at the center of the scandal that engulfed al-Madina when the Central Bank announced in July 2003 that it had detected a cash deficit at the bank of more than euro 250 million, along with other irregularities.
Other suspects in the case include Adnan Abu Ayash and his brother Ibrahim.
Reports have said that the amount missing from the two banks could total as much as euro 1.0 billion.
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