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Bankers make 'confessions' to European investigators as 'wildcard witness' emerges
[An Nahar] Lebanese bankers are giving testimonies that have started nearing the extent of "confessions" in the investigations that are being carried out in  ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years. It produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. That's three statements. Only the first is subjective....by three European delegations as part of a probe into Riad Salameh ...Governor of Lebanon'scentral bank, Banque du Liban since April 1993. Salameh was appointed Governor by decree, approved by the Council of Ministers for a renewable term of six years. He was reappointed for four consecutive terms; in 1999, 2005, 2011 and 2017. Salameh chairs the Banque du Liban Central Council, the Higher Banking Commission, the AML/CFT Special Investigation Commission and the Capital Markets Authority. Salameh is a member of the board of governors at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and at the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF). Salameh is the longest-serving central bank governor in the world.... ’s wealth, a media report said. "The Lebanese investigation, from which the Europeans want documents for their own investigation, included preliminary information and significant inquiries about transfers made from Raja Salameh’s accounts to his brother Riad and close associates," the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Friday. "The investigations have determined that $70 million were transferred from a bank owned by a defaulting political family," the daily added. "The interrogation of al-Mawarid Bank CEO Marwan Kheireddine tackled those transfers as well as accounts for Raja Salameh whose deposits swelled from $15 million to $150 million between 1993 and 2019 before being withdrawn on the eve of the crisis," Nidaa al-Watan said. One of the witnesses, the president of a well-known brokerage company, meanwhile "left for Luxembourg to be interrogated by Sherlocks there and it is possible that he might turn into a protected ’wildcard witness’ in return for valuable confessions related to Raja and Riad Salameh that might be in his possession," the newspaper added. Informed sources meanwhile said that the Lebanese judiciary is relatively cooperating with the European Sherlocks, after reports said that "sanctions might be imposed on any judge who does not cooperate, in line with the U.N. anti-corruption treaty that Lebanon signed in 2008." Posted by: Fred 2023-01-21 |
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