Germany seizes $35 ​​million of Riad Salameh's assets over bank fraud case

German prosecutors said Thursday they had seized assets worth around 35 million euros ($42 million) as part of a money-laundering probe targeting Lebanon's former central bank governor Riad Salameh and four other people.

Salameh headed Lebanon's central bank between 1993 and 2023 and has faced numerous accusations including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion in separate probes in Lebanon and abroad.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors in Munich said in a statement that "high-value commercial properties in Munich and Hamburg, as well as shares in a real estate company in Duesseldorf" had been seized as part of their investigation.

They allege that Salameh, acting with his brother Raja, "embezzled funds totalling more than $330 million to the detriment of the Lebanese central bank and thereby at the expense of the Lebanese state, in order to illegally enrich himself" between 2004 and 2015.

The funds originated from financial transactions between the Lebanese central bank and commercial banks in Lebanon.

The money was laundered through a shell company in the British Virgin Islands and used by Raja Salameh and three other co-accused for investments in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, prosecutors say.

A court in Munich will now decide whether the seized property can be permanently confiscated.

German prosecutors opened their investigation in 2021 and have been working with investigators from France and Luxembourg.

Salameh has been accused of being a key culprit in Lebanon's economic crash, which the World Bank has called one of the worst in recent history, but he has defended his legacy and insisted he is a "scapegoat."

He was arrested in Lebanon in 2024 and indicted in April 2025 for allegedly embezzling $44 million from the central bank.

In September, he was freed after posting more than $14 million in bail and on condition of a one-year travel ban.