People cue outside a bank, hoping to withdraw their funds from accounts frozen amid a collapsed banking sector following the 2019 financial crisis in Lebanon. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Judge Ghada Aoun, Public Prosecutor at the Lebanon Court of Appeal, issued a search warrant on Monday for Byblos Bank Board of Directors Chairman Semaan Bassil, a source close to the Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour.
According to this source, Judge Aoun enacted this measure after "repeatedly and unsuccessfully" summoning the CEO of Byblos Bank. A source privy to Byblos Bank affairs claims that Bassil is abroad for professional reasons.
The prosecutor's case is based on "numerous complaints lodged against the bank to challenge, in particular, alleged transfers of its funds abroad before and after the onset of the 2019 economic crisis."
Since the crisis began, all banking institutions have prohibited their depositors from making transfers from their own accounts, under restrictions they impose outside the law.
Judge Aoun would have consulted a "swift" — a platform for sharing financial transaction information confidentially between banks — in order to reveal significant transfers made by Joumana Bassil Chelala, a senior Byblos Bank official and Semaan Bassil's sister, both before and after the financial crisis began.
In subpoenaing Bassil, Judge Aoun aims to determine if board members besides Chelala made similar transfers, which remain protected under banking secrecy laws for now. This kind of corruption, among those running Lebanon's banks, remains immune from prosecution for the time being.
Another reason for the search warrant is that Byblos Bank "does not comply with circular 158 issued by the Banque du Liban (BDL)," the judicial source added. Circular 158 allows specific beneficiaries selected according to certain conditions to withdraw $300 or $400 "fresh" each month from funds deposited before Nov. 19, 2019.
Asset disposal order
It's possible that the appeal prosecutor is also on the verge of issuing a prohibition order against the disposal of the bank's assets, according to the above-mentioned source. This would be a "preventive" legal measure, based on the charge of "breach of trust."
However, according to a bank lawyer interviewed by L'Orient-Le Jour, "a public prosecutor is not a judge, but a party to a trial as part of a public action." "He has no power to restrict the free disposal of property", he insists, asserting that "property is a constitutional right". "The infringement of this right remains an exception which can only be decided by the magistrate in charge of ruling on the merits of the case concerned", he insists.
Judge Aoun regularly takes action against banks. Just over a month ago, she froze the assets of the CEOs of Credit Libanais and al-Mawarid Bank, Joseph Torbey and Marwan Charafeddine respectively.