Screenshot showing BDL Governor Riad Salameh during an interview on Al-Sharq TV, broadcast February 10, 2023.
Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh said Friday he was ready to “turn a page in [his] life" at the end of his term in a few months, and denied any link with the company Forry Associates Ltd. mentioned in the European and Lebanese justice investigations on suspicions of corruption.
“For me, the decision is that at the end of my term, I will turn a page in my life and leave the central bank," Salameh said in a lengthy interview on Al-Sharq TV.
Salameh was once considered a financial genius and received much praise as governor of BDL, but has since 2019 much of the Lebanese population accuses him of being among those responsible for Lebanon’s unprecedented economic crisis.
In a few months the banker will reach the end of his fifth term as the head of the BDL, an institution he has led for three decades. Though he has already stated that he is willing to leave his post, there are rumors of a possible extension of his mandate, or even a renewal.
‘No connection’ with Forry Associated Ltd.
Salameh also commented on the cross-border investigation European prosecutors have launched concerning money laundering and illicit enrichment, in which he and his brother Raja are suspected of illegally of withdrawing more than $300 million from the central bank between 2002 and 2015.
“There is not a single dollar of BDL funds that was paid to Forry Associated Ltd.," Salameh claimed,
“and I have no connection with that company."
Forry is a brokerage firm that employs Raja Salameh, with which the BDL had a contract. “Some people have exploited my brother’s position in this company to target me," he added, saying that "the judges have in their possession all the necessary documents" on this case, adding "the cases launched against me have no real basis."
The central bank governor and his brother regularly deny the accusations launched against them, and Riad Salameh believes he has become a scapegoat for Lebanon’s deep financial crisis.
CTEX and Hassan Moukalled
Salameh also commented on the sanctions the U.S. Treasury imposed on money changer Hassan Moukalled, whom they accuse of having "facilitated the financial activities of Hezbollah." In its statement announcing these sanctions, the U.S. administration noted that Lebanon’s central bank had licensed Moukalled to transfer money abroad from Lebanon and that "within a year, the company has obtained a significant market share in Lebanon’s currency transfer sector, and allegedly collected millions of U.S. dollars for the BDL."
“The granting of a license to Hassan Moukalled’s CTEX company was done in accordance with Lebanese law, after the study of the application by the concerned bodies of the central bank," Salameh said. He also recalled that Moukalled has companies in the United States and the United Arab Emirates and that he has “no personal ties" with the company or Moukalled. “Like all foreign exchange companies, CTEX sells dollars to BDL and not the other way around and we affirm that there is no link between these operations and the financing of Hezbollah," he added. He said that BDL has frozen the accounts of Moukalled and his sons, who were also sanctioned.
Salameh also announced that 450,000 people in Lebanon benefit from Sayrafa, allowing depositors to withdraw a small part of their funds stuck in the bank in fresh dollars or Lebanese lira at the rate of this BDL platform (LL43,600 to the dollar), which is higher than the official rate, LL15,000/dollar since February 1, but lower than the parallel market (around LL64,000 as of Friday).
