Judge Aoun Freezes Assets of Creditbank

Judge Ghada Aoun froze on Thursday the assets of the Creditbank and its director Tarek Khalifeh.

She also imposed a travel ban on Khalifeh, al-Jadeed TV said, after having imposed last week travel bans on the directors of five other banks as auditors look into transfers by the banks worth $5 billion.

Earlier this week, Aoun had frozen the assets of Bank of Beirut, Bank Audi, SGBL, BLOM Bank and BankMed.

She also froze the assets of their board of directors as she investigates possible transfers of billions of dollars aboard during the country’s economic meltdown.

The assets of Fransabank were also seized on Wednesday after a depositor filed a lawsuit against the bank.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati considered the move to be "dangerous."

He said it is being done in a "show off" manner that might have "dire consequences."

Banks have imposed informal capital controls since the economic crisis began in October 2019 after decades of corruption and mismanagement by the country’s political class. Since then, people do not have full access to their savings and those who withdraw cash from their U.S. dollar accounts get an exchange rate far lower than that of the black market.