The Financial Prosecutor General of Lebanon has claimed the money changer captain on charges of manipulating the local currency and violating the Central Bank of Lebanon's circulars, while the Money Exchange Syndicate considered the arrest of the Captain unfortunate.
This comes after the security authorities arrested the captain of the cashiers after the local currency exchange rate exceeded four thousand pounds against the dollar, while the Bank of Lebanon decided to adhere to an exchange rate of 3200 pounds.
The owners of exchange houses in Lebanon have been on strike for more than a week, protesting the arrest of a number of them.
"The captain of the cashiers was arrested, based on a signal from the Malian public prosecutor, because the money changers bought the dollar at very high prices, which leads to strong speculation and manipulation of the Lebanese pound," the security press quoted a security source as saying.
The source added that "during the past two weeks, about fifty ATMs have been arrested, those of whom have signed pledges not to manipulate the dollar and have been released, while the unauthorized have been referred to several judges for investigation."
Since the summer, a parallel market has appeared in Lebanon for the first time in decades in which the value of the local currency has gradually decreased, while the official exchange rate is still fixed at 1507 pounds per dollar.
The country has been experiencing for months the worst economic meltdown in its modern history with a severe shortage of liquidity and a significant decline in foreign reserves.
Since last September, banks have imposed strict procedures on cash operations and withdrawing funds.
The outbreak of the new Corona virus exacerbated the crisis after banks failed to provide their clients with dollars.
Last April, the Central Bank of Lebanon asked banks to pay customers ’withdrawals from their deposits in dollars in Lebanese pounds. The banks set their exchange rate at three thousand pounds.
"We have to buy the dollar on the black market because we need to secure the dollar daily for the traders - especially food and meat traders - because the Bank of Lebanon and the banks do not secure the dollar, and therefore there is no dollar except on the black market," one of the exchanges told the French press.
The Money Exchange Syndicate issued a statement in which it considered the arrest of the Captain "an unfortunate incident", and affirmed its commitment to "the regulatory teachings that set the exchange rate of the US dollar, despite the difficulty of adhering to any pre-determined price in a mobile market controlled by strong supply and demand."