Lebanon’s former central bank governor Riad Salameh’s corruption case has been transferred to the country’s highest court, judicial officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Salameh and two legal associates, Marwan Khoury and Michel Toueini, will be tried at the Court of Cassation, according to a copy of the notice obtained by the AP. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they were not authorized to speak with the media.
The notice also says arrest warrants will be issued if Salameh and the others do not show up for trial at the court. No trial date had been set, the AP reported.
Salameh, 75, denies the charges, and AP said the court’s final ruling cannot be appealed, according to the four officials.
The prosecution was under way after Salameh was charged in September 2024 with the embezzlement of $42 million. AP reported that the court later added allegations of illicit enrichment tied to an apartment rented in France, described as a substitute office for the central bank if needed.
AP said officials told it that Salameh rented the France apartment from his former romantic partner for about $500,000 annually. The AP also reported that Salameh has repeatedly denied corruption, embezzlement and illicit enrichment, saying his wealth comes from inherited properties, investments and his previous job as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch.
Salameh was once credited with steering Lebanon’s economic recovery after a 15-year civil war. He started his long tenure as governor in 1993 and was seen as keeping the fragile economy afloat during periods of political gridlock and turmoil, AP said.
But AP reported that Salameh left his post in 2023 after three decades, amid investigations by European countries into allegations of financial crimes. Much of Lebanon has blamed his policies for a fiscal crisis in late 2019, when depositors lost their savings and the value of the local currency collapsed, the AP said.
The transfer of Salameh’s case comes as Lebanon’s current central bank governor, Karim Souaid, said he is filing legal complaints against a former central bank governor and a former banking official who, Souaid said, diverted funds from the bank to four shell companies in the Cayman Islands. AP reported that Souaid did not name the individuals, but said the central bank would become a plaintiff in the country’s investigation into Forry Associates.
The U.S. Treasury described Forry Associates, AP reported, as “a shell company owned by Raja (Salameh’s brother) in the British Virgin Islands” used to divert about $330 million in transactions related to the central bank. AP said several European countries, including France, Germany and Luxembourg, have been investigating the matter and freezing accounts and assets linked to Salameh and his associates, with little cooperation from Lebanese authorities and the central bank.
Souaid told AP he will travel later this month to Paris to exchange “highly sensitive” information as France continues its inquiries.