Lebanon’s ex-central bank chief hit with sanctions for alleged graft

Lebanon’s ex-central bank chief hit with sanctions for alleged graft

The US, UK and Canada have imposed sanctions on Lebanon’s former central bank governor Riad Salameh over allegations that he abused the powers of his office “to engage in a variety of unlawful self-enrichment schemes”.

The sanctions, announced by the US Treasury and UK Foreign Office in statements on Thursday, were imposed 10 days after Salameh stood downfrom a 30-year tenure at the helm of the Banque du Liban. 

The Treasury statement confirmed that the US was acting alongside Canada as well as the UK, “partners who share the United States’ vision of a Lebanon that is governed for the benefit of the Lebanese people and not for the personal wealth and ambition of Lebanon’s elite”.

The Treasury said the action did not apply to the BdL, adding: “Neither the central bank nor its assets should be considered blocked due to today’s action.”

Once praised for steadying Lebanon’s precarious finances through years of instability, Salameh has been the subject of intensifying scrutiny since the country’s financial meltdown in 2019, which has driven three-quarters of the population into poverty. 

He has been dogged by allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement at the BdL and is blamed by swaths of the Lebanese public for their misfortunes. The