European magistrates cooperate on the Governor of the Governor of the Bank of Lebanon, accused of massive diversion of public funds.
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The survey in the Salamé case, of the name of the Governor of the Bank of Lebanon (BDL), Riad Salamé, 71 years old, suspected of whitening and diversion of public funds by the French justices, Switzerland and Lebanese, advance Small steps. According to the information of the world, the magistrates involved in this file are beginning to identify in the maze of holdings, accounts and properties held by the boss of the BDL across Europe, whose value is estimated at several hundred million million of dollars. But the key role that the latter continues to exercise on the Lebanese politico-financial scene limits the margin of progression of the investigators, which prevents any lifting of banking secrecy on a series of suspect accounts.
The survey in France was able to rely on the location of the real estate assets of Mr. Salamé to which NGOs were delivered, persuaded that this is poorly acquired property. On October 21, by order of the investigating judge in charge of the French side investigation, several Parisian apartments were searched, which belong to Mr. Salamé, his brother Raja and Anna Kosakova, a 44-year-old Ukrainian with whom the big Argentier Lebanese had a girl out of wedlock. The Swiss Daily The time had revealed, in July, the intriguing real estate heritage of more than ten million euros raised by this woman between 2007 and 2014, on the Champs-Elysées and in the 16 e Arrondissement.
“The survey is progressing in good cadence, welcomes the lawyer William Bourdon, who filed a complaint in France against Mr. Salama, on behalf of the Sherpa Association, specializing in the fight against economic crime. throughout the world. We transmitted a note to the judge with new pieces of information. “
Principle of opacity
The current procedures also benefit from a primer of cooperation between the judicial systems of the different European countries where the fortune of Mr. Salamé is discreetly placed. Luxembourg, German, Swiss and British magistrates gathered on October 14 in The Hague, at the EUROJUST headquarters, the mutual legal assistance platform of the Member States of the European Union, around the French investigating judge and the Lebanese prosecutor charged with the salamed file.
A common investigation team is being established, which should facilitate the exchange of information between the different magistrates. “Given the scattering of properties owned by Riad Salamé, it is necessary to have a pan-European investigation, estimates Zena Wakim, a lawyer of the Swiss Accountability Now Foundation, which is behind a second complaint in France. Research should even be ‘Expand to Monaco, Panama and Singapore, where Riad Salamé, according to our information, would have many bank accounts. “
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