BDL Governor Riad Salameh in Beirut, December 20, 2021. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
BEIRUT — The US Treasury, in coordination with Britain and Canada, on Thursday announced new sanctions against Riad Salameh, Lebanon's former central bank chief.
Salameh's "corrupt and unlawful actions have contributed to the breakdown of the rule of law in Lebanon," the Treasury said in a statement.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also issued sanctions against Salameh's son, Nadi Salameh, his brother Raja Salameh, his former assistant Marianne Hoayek, and his former partner Anna Kosakova.
"Riad Salameh and his close associates have stolen from people of Lebanon and deprived them of resources crucial to its economic and social stability," the British government said in a statement on Thursday.
Salameh is being investigated in several European countries for corruption but denies all charges.
He is also being questioned as part of an investigation by the Lebanese judiciary for "forgery, money laundering, illicit enrichment and tax evasion."
On Wednesday, Beirut's Indictment Chamber postponed Salameh's hearing to Aug. 29, after it could not locate him to notify him of scheduled questioning.
Three separate police stations — Ghazir, Antelias and one in Beirut — were tasked with the delivery of the summons but, according to a senior judicial source, police could not find him at his residences in Safra and Rabieh, nor at the BDL.Hoayek, Salameh and his brother Raja face a slew of charges in Lebanon for allegedly conspiring to defraud BDL of hundreds of millions of dollars.