Lebanon

Lebanon charged its embattled former central bank governor Wednesday with the embezzlement of $42 million, three judicial officials told The Associated Press. Riad Salameh was charged by the Financial Public Prosecution a day after he was detained following an interrogation by Lebanon's top public prosecutor over several alleged financial crimes. His case has been transferred to an investigating judge, the officials added, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Four years after Lebanon’s historic meltdown began, the small nation is still facing “enormous economic challenges,” with a collapsed banking sector, eroding public services, deteriorating infrastructure and worsening poverty, the International Monetary Fund warned Friday, the Associated Press reported. In a statement issued at the end of a four-day visit by an IMF delegation to the crisis-hit country, the international agency welcomed recent policy decisions by Lebanon's central bank to stop lending to the state and end the work in an exchange platform known as Sayrafa.

The United States, United Kingdom, and Canada slapped sanctions Thursday on Lebanon's embattled former central bank governor and a handful of close relatives and associates over allegations of corruption, the U.S. Treasury Department said, the Associated Press reported. Riad Salameh, 73, ended his 30-year tenure on July 31 under a cloud of investigation and blame for his country's historic economic crisis. France, Germany, and Luxembourg are investigating Salameh and close associates over alleged financial crimes, including illicit enrichment and the laundering of $330 million.

Banks from four Arab countries are interested in investing in Lebanon’s struggling banking sector, which was hard-hit by the small nation’s three-year economic meltdown, a top Arab banker said Thursday, the Associated Press reported. Lebanon is in the throes of its worst economic crisis in its short and troubled history that has skyrocketed poverty and inflation, and crippled its bloated public sector and infrastructure.

Virtually no one in Lebanon has been spared from the two-pronged financial collapse of both the banking system and the local currency, the lira, which has lost 98 percent of its value since 2019. But most of the burden has fallen on depositors who overnight lost access to money they had spent a lifetime saving, the New York Times reported.

Lebanon’s embattled central bank governor failed to appear before French prosecutors on Tuesday to be questioned on corruption charges, officials said, the Associated Press reported. A European judicial team from France, Germany and Luxembourg is conducting a corruption probe into an array of financial crimes, including illicit enrichment and alleged laundering of $330 million, implicating the Lebanese governor, Riad Salameh. Salameh, who has held his post for almost 30 years, has repeatedly denied all allegations against him.

A European judicial team questioned Lebanon’s caretaker finance minister on Friday in an investigation related to corruption probes of the country’s Central Bank governor, officials said, the Associated Press reported. The questioning is part of a probe by a delegation from France, Germany, and Luxembourg, now on its third visit to Lebanon to interrogate suspects and witnesses in the case. Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh is being investigated abroad over several financial crimes and the laundering of some $330 million.

A European judicial team questioned on Thursday the brother of Lebanon’s embattled Central Bank governor who is is being investigated abroad over several financial crimes and the laundering of some $330 million, the Associated Press reported. The questioning is part of a probe by a delegation from France, Germany, and Luxembourg, which is now on its third visit to Lebanon to interrogate suspects and witnesses in the case. The delegation questioned Gov.