From acclaim to blame: Central bank chief Riad Salameh

From acclaim to blame: Central bank chief Riad Salameh

Central bank chief Riad Salameh, once lauded for reviving the economy, faces investigations into his personal wealth and is widely viewed as a key culprit in the country's dramatic economic crash.

Salameh, 72, one of the world's longest-serving central bank governors having held the post for three decades, was a previously untouchable figure in Lebanon.

On Thursday and Friday, he appeared for the first time before European investigators probing his personal wealth and allegedly suspicious financial transfers abroad.

Now slapped with a travel ban, he faces numerous accusations of financial wrongdoing in Lebanon and abroad. Salameh has repeatedly denied all the accusations.

Salameh was the architect of the financial policy that allowed Lebanon to recover from a grinding 1975-1990 civil war, and was responsible for pegging the Lebanese pound at 1,507 to the dollar.

Known for his calm demeanor, he studied economics at the American University of Beirut and worked for Merrill Lynch in the Lebanese capital before becoming vice-president in France.

"He has been a trader and a broker all his life, that is the problem," said a veteran Lebanese financial expert, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"You need an economist to run a central bank, not somebody too close to the banking system that he