Mecattaf case: Judge Nada Asmar takes over the investigation

Mount Lebanon’s First Investigative Judge Nada Asmar held a hearing Monday in the case involving cash transfer company Mecattaf.

The case dates back to 2021, when former Mount Lebanon Appeals Court Prosecutor Ghada Aoun filed charges against several individuals and companies, including the firm’s CEO, Michel Mecattaf, who died in 2022, former Banque du Liban (BDL) governor Riad Salameh, and SGBL Bank CEO Antoun Sehnaoui, on suspicion of money laundering.

Also targeted by Aoun’s prosecution are Maya Dabbagh, head of the Banking Control Commission of Lebanon (BCCL), and international consulting firm PwC, which she suspected of providing incomplete reports. The case had originally been assigned to then First Investigative Judge of Mount Lebanon Nicolas Mansour. Appointed to the post in September 2025, Asmar continued the investigation he had started.

Several of her hearings were postponed because of the war and strikes by judicial staff. According to information obtained by L’Orient-Le Jour, Mecattaf was represented at Monday’s hearing by its lawyer, Marc Habka, and by a company executive, both of whom were questioned by Asmar.

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Former BDL governor Salameh, meanwhile, was represented by lawyer Wassim Ghaoui, who submitted a medical excuse on his client’s behalf. No details were available regarding the substance of the hearing, which was adjourned until June 29. The parties targeted in the case have consistently denied Aoun’s allegations. The former prosecutor was seeking to determine whether they had been involved in the illicit transfer of large amounts of foreign currency abroad in the fall of 2019, as Lebanon was sliding deeper into financial crisis. Following a series of highly publicized raids on Mecattaf’s offices, Aoun was stripped of her financial case files by former Chief Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat and referred to the Judicial Inspection Authority.

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Alleged shell companies case postponed

In a separate case involving allegations of illicit enrichment and suspected shell companies, implicating Salameh and former Bank Audi CEO Samir Hanna, current central bank governor Karim Souhaid referred the matter to prosecutors in January. The new Chief Prosecutor Ahmad Rami Hajj did not hold the hearing scheduled for Monday. According to information obtained by L’Orient-Le Jour, he decided to postpone it until next week. The last hearing in the case took place on May 5, when Hajj requested the appointment of a panel of doctors to assess Salameh’s health condition.At an earlier session, Salameh’s lawyer had submitted a medical certificate and a forensic physician’s report to justify his client’s absence. Those documents do not appear to have satisfied Hajj, who ordered an additional medical evaluation.

This article originally appeared in French on L'Orient-Le Jour and was translated by Sahar Ghoussoub.