Two associations filed a legal complaint on Monday against Lebanon's central bank governor, Riad Salameh, who they accuse of fraudulently amassing a large fortune in Europe.
Sherpa, which specialises in fighting financial crime, and the "collective of victims of fraudulent and criminal activities in Lebanon" said they were also filing against Mr Salameh's brother Raja, his son Nadi, his nephew, and a close associate at the central bank, Marianne Hoayek, in the case.
The complaints were filed with the French Financial Prosecutor's Office. Last month, Swiss media reported that prosecutors there were tracking Mr Salameh's suspected fund movements.
The central bank governor, who is at the centre of Lebanon’s worst financial crisis in three decades, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Mr Salameh, a former Merrill Lynch banker who advised former prime minister Rafik Hariri, has been governor of the country’s central bank since 1993 and helped Lebanon navigate through successive conflicts with Israel, civil strife, and shielded it from the 2008 global financial crisis.
The Swiss Attorney General's office said in January that it was investigating "aggravated money laundering in connection with possible embezzlement" to the detriment of the Lebanese central bank, or Banque du Liban.
The French complaint, filed on April 30, calls for an international investigation of an alleged conspiracy to launder money, receive laundered money, commit fraud and engage in fraudulent commercial practices, among other accusations.
Lebanon has been mired in deep crisis since 2019, with its currency losing more than 85 per cent of its value against the US dollar. Inflation reached 158 per cent in March. Banks have restricted depositor withdrawals and money transfers abroad. The economic crisis has led to an increase in poverty and unemployment in the country.
The associations are asking the judiciary to investigate Lebanese capital flight since the start of the crisis, and how the people named in the complaint could afford luxury property that was far beyond their official income.
They also want the inquiry to extend to financial intermediaries using tax havens and front companies.
The complaint claims Mr Salameh's fortune is in excess of €2 billion ($2.41bn). The central bank governor was already wealthy prior to heading the country's regulator and declared a net worth of $23 million prior to assuming his role in 1993.
Mr Salameh, who owns a luxury seafront villa in Antibes on the French Riviera, has rejected figures put forward by his accusers.
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
'Nope'
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
ICC T20 Team of 2021
Jos Buttler, Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, David Miller, Tabraiz Shamsi, Josh Hazlewood, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mustafizur Rahman, Shaheen Afridi
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
1.
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United States
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2.
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China
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3.
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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6.
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Canada
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7.
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Singapore
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8.
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Australia
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9.
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Saudi Arabia
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10.
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South Korea
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