Report: Charges against Salameh to be likely limited to $40M commissions

The charges against detained former Central Bank chief Riad Salameh will be focused on the file of the $40 million commissions, a media report said on Friday.

Opening all files “will lead to a years-long or perhaps decades-long trial that does not end, given the complicated details, in addition to the obstacles that will be put in the way and the pressures that will be practiced on the judiciary due to political interference,” Annahar newspaper reported.

“The involved politicians will have fears over the possible outcome of such investigations,” the daily said.

Accordingly, informed legal sources told the newspaper that “the probe will likely remain limited to Salameh as part of a bigger settlement that involves other files, not excluding the presidency and the South.”

Salameh was on Wednesday charged with the embezzlement of $42 million. The former governor, 73, was charged by the Financial Public Prosecution a day after he was detained following an interrogation by Lebanon's top public prosecutor over several alleged financial crimes.

His case has been transferred to an investigating judge.

Salameh has for years denied allegations of corruption, embezzlement and illicit enrichment. He insists that his wealth comes from inherited properties, investments and his previous job as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch.

During his hours-long interrogation on Monday, Salameh was asked about a key case in which a company was allegedly hired to manipulate statements and conceal Lebanon's hemorrhaging finances.

According to two judicial officials, Salameh appeared to have brought in the company, called Optimum, to help facilitate embezzling money from the central bank through other accounts, eventually reaching his own.

The financial intelligence unit of the central bank presented bank statements and financial documents to the public prosecution, added the two officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The embattled Salameh is also in the midst of several other cases against him, both locally and internationally.

France, Germany, and Luxembourg are also investigating Salameh and close associates over alleged illicit enrichment and the laundering of $330 million.

Salameh has criticized the European investigation and said it was part of a media and political campaign make him a scapegoat.

Meanwhile, the U.S., the UK, and Canada have sanctioned Salameh and his close associates, and France issued an international arrest warrant for him, though Lebanon does not hand over its own citizens for extradition.