Lebanese judge charges Riad and Raja Salameh with financial crimes

Beirut Attorney General Judge Raja Hamoush on Thursday charged Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, his brother Raja and his assistant Marianne Hoayek with money laundering, public funds embezzlement, tax evasion, forgery and illicit enrichment, the state-run National News Agency said.

Hamoush also referred the file and the suspects to Beirut First Examining Magistrate Charbel Abu Samra, demanding that they be interrogated and that the "necessary judicial writs be issued against them."

These are the first such charges to have been leveled against Salameh in a Lebanese probe that was launched in 2021 in parallel with investigations overseen by European judges.

European investigators intend to question Salameh as part of a probe into his and his brother's affairs, a judicial official told AFP in January.

Investigators from France, Germany and Luxembourg had heard witnesses in Beirut in January as part of the case. Salameh and his brother Raja both deny any wrongdoing.

A judicial official told The Associated Press that the charges raised Thursday may delay an anticipated, follow-up visit by the European judicial delegation.

Just before the announcement, a German Embassy delegation showed up at the Justice Palace in Beirut to meet with Lebanon's chief prosecutor, Ghassan Oueidat. But Oueidat refused to meet with them, citing his work schedule, the official said.

No further details were provided and it wasn't immediately clear if Oueidat's action was connected to Hamoush's charges against Salameh, which were announced shortly after.

The central bank chief, in office for three decades, is widely blamed for monetary policies that contributed to an unprecedented economic crisis in Lebanon, but he has dismissed such criticism.

European investigators also examined the central bank's ties to Forry Associates Ltd, a British Virgin Islands-registered company that listed Raja Salameh as its beneficiary.

Forry is suspected of having brokered Lebanese treasury bonds and Eurobonds at a commission, which was then allegedly transferred to Raja Salameh's bank accounts abroad.

France, Germany and Luxembourg last March seized assets worth 120 million euros ($130 million) in a move linked to a probe by French investigators into 72-year-old Riad Salameh's personal wealth.

Lebanon opened its own probe into Salameh's affairs last year, after the office of Switzerland's top prosecutor requested assistance with an investigation into more than $300 million allegedly embezzled from the central bank with the help of his brother.

Since the financial crisis hit Lebanon in late 2019, leaving the country bankrupt, Lebanon's currency has lost more than 95 percent of its value and much of the population has been plunged into poverty.