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I’m Rana Sabbagh, OCCRP’s senior editor for the Middle East and North Africa region. For years, rumors were swirling around the outsized wealth of Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salame. In 2019, his family’s fortune was particularly galling as some blamed him for plunging Lebanon into an epic financial crisis that saw people struggling to buy food, medicine, and fuel — a tragic situation that continues to this day.
Protest in Beirut, 2019. Photo credit: Shahen Books - CC BY-SA 4.0
A Lebanese judge charged Salame in absentia with illicit enrichment and money laundering (the judge also filed a lawsuit against the chief of police for preventing a subpoena that would bring Salame in for questioning).
Authorities in Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and Monaco froze assets worth $130 million in relation to ongoing money laundering investigations into Salame and his entourage.
Seven activist groups requested that Switzerland’s financial watchdog launch an investigation into the relationship between three Swiss banks and Salame.
Lebanese authorities arrested Salame’s brother on charges of money laundering and illicit enrichment (he is currently released on bail).
While Salame denies any wrongdoing, we expect more impact from our reporting as official investigations continue to scrutinize his wealth.
And we always stick with a story until the end. Just this month, we published another investigation exposing how Salame’s son sent $6.5 million abroad while most Lebanese citizens were blocked from withdrawing their savings.
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