Prosecutor Freezes Assets of Twenty Lebanese Banks

Financial Prosecutor Ali Ibrahim put a “prevention of disposal” signal on the assets of twenty Lebanese banks, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

He also imposed a freeze on the assets of the heads and members of boards of directors of these banks, said NNA.

Assets to be frozen in an apparent move to bring the banks under pressure included "real estate, cars and companies," a judicial source told AFP.

A second source said it was "a preliminary measure that will be followed by others according to the response of the banks and their treatment of small depositors."

Both sources said the decision still needed to be approved by central bank head Riad Salameh, but that he was likely to agree to avoid a collapse of the banking sector.

LBCI obtained the names of these banks listing them as follows: Bank Audi, BLOM, Fransbank, Byblos, Societe Generale, Bank of Beirut, BankMed, Banque Libano-Française, Credit Libanais, Al-Mawarid Bank, Intercontinental Bank of Lebanon, FNB, Lebanon and Gulf Bank, BBAC, MEAB, Federal Bank of Lebanon, BSL Bank, Lebanese Swiss Bank, BML, Saradar Bank and Cedrus Bank.

The decision came after Monday’s hearing when Lebanese banking association head Salim Sfeir, as well as representatives from 14 banks appeared before Ibrahim over more than 2 billion dollars in capital flight in past months despite strict banking restrictions in the crisis-hit country.

Banks have since September imposed increasingly tight limits on dollar withdrawals and transfers abroad as part of measures to tackle a severe liquidity crisis.

But bankers stand accused of having sent millions of dollars abroad despite those limitations since mass anti-government protests erupted on October 17.