Karim Souhaid meets French investigating judge 'to recover embezzled funds'

BEIRUT — In a statement released Wednesday, Banque du Liban (central bank, BDL) announced that its governor, Karim Souhaid, accompanied by the BDL’s legal team, held "a series of meetings with French investigating judge Clemence Olivier in Paris" on Jan. 13.

The judge "welcomed" this initiative as well as "the transmission of essential information that had been missing from the case file."

This trip had already been announced during a press conference held on Jan. 8, when the governor stated that he intended to "voluntarily" travel to France before the end of January to "exchange extremely sensitive information" related to legal proceedings concerning the BDL.

These involve several cases of alleged embezzlement of BDL funds over recent years, including those involving the company Forry Associates.

The former governor, Riad Salameh, and certain family members are under investigation both in Lebanon and abroad.

At that time, Souhaid also announced that the BDL had constituted itself as a civil party in the case launched against Forry Associates in Lebanon. The firm, registered in the British Virgin Islands, allegedly served — as per Lebanese and European investigators — as a vehicle for the embezzlement of public funds through a system of commissions.

Additional series of meetings

"Following this coordination, the BDL discovered the existence of new deliberate and coordinated actions that led to the misappropriation of its funds, for the purpose of illicit personal enrichment," the statement continued.

It also indicated that "the entities involved include individuals and shell companies, many of which are located across Europe and other tax havens."

More on the case

Beirut Indictment Chamber issues deferred arrest warrant for Riad Salameh

The "close" cooperation with the French judiciary is a "central element in establishing criminal responsibility" and has already enabled the BDL "to refine its legal strategy and broaden the scope of its investigations in order to recover the embezzled funds," the statement said.

It added: "An additional series of meetings between the governor, the BDL legal team, and French judicial authorities has also been scheduled, confirming that this process is continuing, accelerating, and experiencing a positive and constructive evolution."

Deferred execution arrest

Coincidentally, while Souhaid was holding meetings in Paris on Jan. 13, the Beirut Indictment Chamber issued a ruling ordering the deferred arrest of former governor Salameh and two lawyers, Micky Tueni and Marwan Issa al-Khoury, in the case concerning the BDL's consultancy account, also known as the Optimum Invest case.

A judicial source interviewed by L'Orient-Le Jour explained that the decision can only be executed by the Beirut Criminal Court, to which the Indictment Chamber has referred the case, accusing Salameh of the alleged embezzlement of $44.8 million from the consultancy account to private accounts.

The BDL account in question includes, among other things, funds from commissions obtained through operations carried out between the central bank and a brokerage firm, Optimum Invest, between 2015 and 2018.

Both the company and Salameh have denied any wrongdoing. Some of these funds are believed to have been transferred to private accounts via commercial banks.