Investors pay high price as judges target Lebanese banks

Investors pay high price as judges target Lebanese banks

BEIRUT: A Lebanese judge has issued a travel ban against Creditbank Chairman Tarek Khalife and frozen the bank’s assets, including properties and vehicles, as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering. Mount Lebanon Public Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun issued the order after activists filed a lawsuit against several Lebanese banks. Creditbank is the sixth lender Aoun has taken action against after Bank of Beirut, SGBL, Bankmed, Bank Audi and Blom Bank. It is the second judicial measure taken within 24 hours against banks in Lebanon. Earlier, Judge Miriana Anani, head of the Enforcement Department in Beirut, seized all the shares, properties and assets of one of Lebanon’s largest banks, Fransabank. The assets will be auctioned if the bank fails to return a deposit belonging to Ayad Garbawy Ibrahim, an Egyptian national who is among hundreds of depositors unable to access his funds at Fransabank. Ibrahim is taking legal action against the bank to recover the $35,000 he claims is owing. Judge Aoun on Thursday also issued an arrest warrant for Raja Salameh, brother of the governor of the central bank, Riad Salameh, following an investigation. The Pioneers of Truth activist group said that Salameh had been arrested on the