AThe Paris Court of Appeal will debate on Tuesday the validity of a large number of seizures made on the real estate and banking assets in Europe of the governor of Lebanon's central bank, Riad Salameh, who is suspected of having acquired them through massive misappropriation of Lebanese public funds.
Interviewed in Beirut in mid-March by several European judges investigating him, including French investigating judge Aude Buresi, Riad Salameh, 72, maintained his innocence, as he has done since the opening of the case, AFP reported.
Salameh repeatedly denies the charges against him, considering that they are part of a political and media campaign to “distort” his image.
He confirms that he made his wealth from his work for two decades at Merrill Lynch and from investments in several fields.
At the end of March 2022, France, Germany, and Luxembourg announced the freezing of 120 million euros of Lebanese assets linked to Salameh and four other people including his brother Raja Salameh for charges of money laundry and embezzlement of more than $330 million and 5 million euro of public funds between 2002 and 2021.
The Parisian investigating chamber will debate on Tuesday the requests made by the Salameh camp for the restitution of more than a dozen different seizures made by France, including apartments in the 16th arrondissement of Paris and on the Champs-Elysées, in addition to the UK, and Belgium, as well as banking accounts and others.
The decision on these assets, the value of which is in the tens of millions of euros, should be known within a few weeks.
The Public Prosecutor's Office has asked for confirmation of the seizures, expressing concern that, in the event of a possible judicial conviction, France would be deprived of "any prospect of confiscation" of the assets.
The stakes are high, says a source close to the case: "To hit [Riad Salameh] in the wallet is the main concrete action possible in this case," since Lebanon refuses to extradite its nationals and tries them on its soil if they are convicted abroad.
William Bourdon, lawyer for two civil parties, the NGO Sherpa and the Collectif des victimes des pratiques frauduleuses et criminelles au Liban (CPVCL), also asks for confirmation of these seizures, "based on very powerful evidence."
"The requests for release are as much a rearguard battle as a communication operation," Bourdon added.
The French judicial inquiry, the existence of which was revealed by AFP, has been running since July 2021, in parallel with other European and Lebanese investigations.
According to investigation documents of which AFP has been informed, the embezzlement scheme in question is based mainly on a company registered in the Virgin Islands, created in 2001 by the Mossack Fonseca firm, implicated in the Panama Papers.
The investigations focus on the link between Forry Associates Ltd and Banque du Liban.
Forry Associates Ltd, whose economic beneficiary is allegedly Raja Salameh, the governor's brother, was authorized by Banque du Liban, to trade Lebanese treasury bills and Eurobonds for a commission.
