France, Germany and Luxembourg have frozen 120 million euros in Lebanese assets following a money laundering investigation that targets five people, including the governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon Riad Salamé.

These five suspects are suspected of having "embezzled public funds in Lebanon for amounts of more than 330 million dollars and 5 million euros, respectively, between 2002 and 2021", underlined, Monday March 28, the agency for Judicial Cooperation (Eurojust) in a press release.

Sources familiar with the matter told AFP that these five people were Riad Salamé and four members of his family or entourage.

>> To read: Riad Salamé, the great financier of Lebanon targeted by French justice

The French financial prosecutor's office (PNF) had opened on July 2, 2021 a judicial investigation targeting the rich heritage in Europe of the Lebanese official, on whom the charges of money laundering in an organized gang and criminal association weigh.

Target of a series of judicial investigations both in Lebanon and abroad, Riad Salamé is also the subject of new charges related to "illicit enrichment" issued by a judge in Beirut, a judicial source indicated on March 21st.

"Massive seizures"

The PNF hailed on Twitter "seizures of magnitude" within the framework of a judicial investigation that it had opened for heads of "laundering in an organized gang, association of criminals and concealment of an offense committed in particular in France and in Lebanon".

Eurojust, which coordinated the operation, for its part did not give information on the identity of the suspects and insisted that they are “presumed innocent until found guilty”. .

💶 Lebanese assets worth EUR 120 million have been frozen by 🇫🇷, 🇩🇪 & 🇱🇺 authorities with #Eurojust assistance.



Several properties and bank accounts in 5 countries were seized in the action against #MoneyLaundering.



Discover how we supported the case:


👉 https://t.co/59Hh90Dahg pic.twitter.com/y8dtFuycoc

— Eurojust (@Eurojust) March 28, 2022

In France, the authorities seized, last Friday, two real estate complexes in Paris with a total value of 16 million euros, detailed Eurojust.

These are two apartments located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Several bank accounts were also seized in France (2.2 million euros) and Monaco (46 million euros), as well as a building in Brussels worth 7 million euros, Eurojust said. .

German judicial authorities seized three properties (one in Hamburg, two in Munich).

Shares in a Düsseldorf-based real estate company were also secured.

Besides the properties, currently worth around 28 million euros, other assets worth around 7 million euros have been seized across Germany, Eurojust said. 

Riad Salamé considers himself a "scapegoat" for the crisis

In Luxembourg, around 11 million euros were seized from several bank accounts, according to the agency.

The legal proceedings against Riad Salamé have as their starting point the complaints filed in April in Paris by the Swiss foundation Accountability Now on the one hand and, on the other, the NGO Sherpa and the "Collective of victims of fraudulent and criminal practices in Lebanon", made up of savers robbed in the crisis that has hit the country since 2019.

>> To read: The withdrawal of Saad Hariri, a political earthquake that reshuffles all the cards in Lebanon

While Lebanon is facing an unprecedented economic crisis, this relative of the Hariri family clan is shouted down by the street, who suspects him of having, like other officials in the country, transferred large sums to the foreigner during the October 2019 uprising.

He defended himself in the media, believing he was the "scapegoat" of the crisis and claiming to have made the heritage of 23 million dollars (19.5 million euros) that he held in 1993 during the taking office as head of the Central Bank.

“We will exercise all useful remedies”, reacted Monday Me Pierre-Olivier Sur, the lawyer for Riad Salamé in France.

With AFP

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