French prosecutors name bank chairman a suspect in Lebanese central bank probe

French prosecutors name bank chairman a suspect in Lebanese central bank probe

Paris - French prosecutors said they have put a Lebanese banker under formal investigation, the latest move in a cross-border probe looking into whether Lebanon’s central bank governor Riad Salameh, embezzled vast sums of public funds.

The Lebanese banker, Marwan Kheireddine, who is the chairman of Lebanon's AM Bank, is suspected of participation in a criminal association and aggravated money laundering, a spokesperson at the Paris office of the National Financial Prosecutors said on Friday.

Kheireddine, who was in France on March 24 when prosecutors notified him of the preliminary charges, was not kept in custody, the spokesperson said, but he was told not to leave the country and his passport was confiscated.

Kheireddine did not respond to phone calls and text messages. A lawyer who, Reuters was told represents him, said he could not confirm being Kheireddine's counsel.

Salameh, who has been at the helm of the central bank for three decades, is being investigated in Lebanon, in France and in at least four other European countries over accusations of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars and laundering some of the proceeds abroad.

Salameh has denied the accusations, saying he is being made a scapegoat for Lebanon's financial crisis that erupted in 2019.

According to