Lebanon's former central bank governor, Riad Salameh, was arrested on Tuesday during a judicial hearing in the capital Beirut, a senior judicial source told Reuters.
Salameh has been charged with financial crimes including money-laundering, embezzlement and illicit enrichment. He denies all wrongdoing.
Salameh was Lebanon's central bank governor for 30 years until July 2023. In his final months as governor, Germany issued an arrest warrant for him on corruption charges.
He is being investigated in Lebanon and at least five European countries for allegedly taking hundreds of millions of dollars from Lebanon's central bank to the detriment of the Lebanese state and laundering the funds abroad.
The CEO of Lebanon's Optimum Invest said the firm had not been present at Tuesday's hearing over its dealings with Salameh.
Reine Abboud told Reuters the firm had heard of the arrest through the media, and said it had carried out a financial audit earlier this year of its interactions with the central bank that found no evidence of wrongdoing by the firm.
