The interrogation of the governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon (Banque du Liban), Riad Salameh, for money laundering and illicit enrichment, was postponed for next June, the National News Agency reports.
According to the state-owned media, the first examining magistrate of Mount Lebanon, Nicolas Mansour, extended for three months the appeal of interrogation of Salameh, accused of corruption and negligence in his office.
Since the end of last year, investigators in Switzerland, France and Luxembourg have been looking into Salameh’s background on suspicion of embezzlement of Central Bank funds.
This week, the European Union’s criminal justice cooperation agency (Eurojust), helped freeze some $132 million of Lebanese assets in France, Germany, Luxembourg, Monaco and Belgium, including property and bank accounts.
The move is linked to the money laundering investigation linking five nationals, including Salameh, suspected of embezzling some $330 million.
Last January, Lebanese judge Ghada Aoun froze some assets of the Central Bank director as a “preventive measure” and issued a ban on leaving the country until investigations into suspected money laundering are concluded.
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