Johannesburg,South Africa

The U.S Department of Treasury has announced on Thursday,10 August 2023 that it sanctioned the Lebanon's former Central Bank Governor,Riad Salameh for his misconduct of stealing from the public purse.

The U.S Treasury through its Office of Foreign Assets Control(OFAC) has decided to join its partners United Kingdom(UK) and Canada to punish Salameh and his co-conspirators.

Salameh is believed that he used his position to enrich himself, his family and associates to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars using shell companies to invest European real estate.

The U.S Treasury mentioned that OFAC is also designating four close associates of Salameh,including members of Salameh's family and his primary assistant, who helped to conceal and facilitate this corrupt activity.

"By using his position to enrich himself, his family, and his associates in apparent contravention of Lebanese law, Salameh contributed to Lebanon's endemic corruption and perpetuated the perception that elites in Lebanon need not abide by the same rules that apply to all Lebanese people,"said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence,Brian E. Nelson."We are joining the United Kingdom and Canada in imposing sanctions on the former governor because he used his position to place his personal financial interests and ambitions above those of the people he served, even as the economic crisis in Lebanon worsened."

These sanctions against Salameh and his cronies came up after a multiple investigations which were conducted by both Lebanese and European law enforcement agencies.

So,the OFAC's action was taken following an Executive Order(E.O) 13441,which authorizes sanctions against certain persons that have taken actions that have the purpose or effect of undermining Lebanon's democratic processes or contributing to the breakdown of the rule of law in Lebanon.

According to U.S Treasury,OFAC's designation of Salameh and individuals involved in his corrupt schemes do not extend to the Banque du Liban(BdL) or the BdL's U.S correspondent bank relationships. The U.S government will continue its extensive cooperation with a range of public and private sector entities to support efforts to counter corruption and implement economic reforms in Lebanon.

Law enforcement agencies that were investigating Riad Salameh had unearthed that he is connected numerous shell companies and bank accounts in Europe and the Carribean.

To commit his corrupt activities as a Governor of Central Bank of Lebanon,he was assisted by his own brother Raja Salameh who owned a shell company called Forry Associates which is registered in the British Virgin Islands to divert approximately US$330 million from transactions involving the BdL.

He was also assisted by his assistant Marianne Hoayek to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars used her own bank account to those accounts belong to Salameh and Raja.

The investigations discovered that all these funds that were stolen from BdL were transfered to a number of property management companies in France,Germany,Luxembourg,and Belgium that were registered in the names of either Salameh's son, Nady Salameh(Nady),or Salameh's former partner, Anna Kosakova(Anna).

The U.S Treasury added that Anna was the publicly registered officer of companies registered in Luxembourg that used subsidiaries in Germany and Belgium to purchase high-end commercial real estate worth tens of millions of dollars.In France,Anna owned companies that received funds from Forry Associates and used those funds to purchase luxury properties, including apartments for Anna and Salameh in one of Paris' most sought-after neighborhoods, and an office building on the Champs-Elysees where the BdL rented space for its "continuity of operations" center.