Marwan Kheireddine, former Lebanese minister and head of the private bank al-Mawarid. (Credit: NNA)
Banker and former minister Marwan Kheireddine was questioned Wednesday by Attorney General Jamal Hajjar over the $14 million bail — the highest in Lebanese judicial history — that secured the release of former central bank governor Riad Salameh.
A judicial source confirmed that the former minister, who was charged in France at the end of March 2023 in the investigation into Salameh’s European assets, was indeed heard by the prosecutor.
Several media outlets reported that this questioning was related to the origin of the funds used for the bail paid on Sept. 26, which Kheireddine may have potentially helped to obtain.
Contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, the lawyer for the director of the private bank al-Mawarid was not able to comment on this information.
Kheireddine was charged and placed under judicial supervision in 2023 for criminal association, notably with the intent to commit embezzlement of public funds or money laundering. As part of the investigation in France into his banking and real estate assets in Europe, Salameh was suspected of having been the beneficiary of accounts at the bank managed by Kheireddine, which may not have been regularly monitored. Kheireddine's lawyer at the time stated that his client had not committed any wrongdoing.
After Salameh’s release at the end of September, more than a year after his arrest, Prosecutor Hajjar opened an investigation into the origin of the funds to verify their legitimacy. In this context, criminal police went to Bhannès Hospital in Metn, where Salameh was being held while receiving treatment, in order to question him.
The case for which Salameh paid this record bail concerns the Consulting Account, linked to transactions amounting to around $44 million between the financial brokerage firm Optimum Invest and the BDL. These transfers are said to have been made from Optimum Invest to a consulting account at the BDL before being transferred to private accounts.
