US, UK and Canada sanction former Lebanon central bank chief Riad Salameh

Mr Salameh, who left office on July 31 after three decades in the job, is wanted by France and Germany and reviled by many at home after years of financial meltdown.

The French-Lebanese citizen, 73, is widely viewed as a key culprit in the country's economic crash, which the World Bank has called one of the worst in recent history.

He is under scrutiny in several domestic and international investigations for the alleged embezzlement of $330 million from Lebanon's central bank funnelled into properties across Europe and the UK, where more than $130 million worth of assets associated with him have been frozen.

Mr Salameh has repeatedly denied the allegations and any wrongdoing and defended his legacy at the bank.

On Thursday, three countries took steps against Mr Salameh and his associates.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has placed him on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. The US Treasury said that Mr Salameh's “corrupt and unlawful actions have contributed to the breakdown of the rule of law in Lebanon”.

Mr Salameh's former aid, Marianne Hoayek, his son Nady Salameh, his brother Raja Salameh, and his romantic partner Anna Kosakova have also been sanctioned.

“Salameh abused his position of power, likely in violation of Lebanese law, to enrich himself and his associates by funneling hundreds of millions of dollars through layered shell companies to invest in European real estate,” a U.S. Treasury Department statement said.

The statement said the U.S. coordinated the sanctions with the U.K. and Canada and that assets connected to Salameh would be frozen. The U.S. also sanctioned Salameh’s son Nady, brother Raja, close associate Marianne Hoayek and “former partner” Anna Kosakova. The U.K. sanctioned the same list of people except Nady Salameh, and Canada sanctioned only Salameh, his brother and Howayek.

Raja has been accused of supporting his brother’s embezzlement through a brokerage firm he owns called Forry Associates Ltd, which the U.S. Treasury described as a shell company based in the Virgin Islands.

Nady Salameh was sanctioned as “the publicly registered officer” of companies registered in Luxembourg that purchased high-end real estate worth tens of millions of dollars through subsidiary companies in Belgium and Germany.

France-based Ukrainian Kosakova was accused of using funds funneled from Forry to purchase luxury properties in Paris, including apartments in high-end neighborhoods, and an office building on the touristic Champs-Elysées avenue for the central bank as a “continuity of operations” center.

https://apnews.com/article/treasury-lebanon-riad-salameh-sanctions-corruption-f6ca3cb35a6d75e39a536c4475c6ad1e

https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/lebanon/2023/08/10/us-sanctions-former-lebanon-central-bank-chief-riad-salameh/

French Prosecutors Name Ukrainian Suspect in Lebanese Central Bank Probe

By Reuters

Dec. 5, 2022

French prosecutors said on Monday they have put a Ukrainian woman linked to the governor of Lebanon's central bank under formal investigation as part of a cross-border probe into alleged fraud to the detriment of the Lebanese state.

Anna Kosakova, with whom central bank governor Riad Salameh has a daughter, according to a birth certificate seen by Reuters, is suspected of aggravated money laundering, a spokesperson at the Paris office of the National Financial Prosecutors said.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-12-05/french-prosecutors-name-ukrainian-suspect-in-lebanese-central-bank-probe