Revealed: How investigators say Riad Salameh conducted central bank embezzlement operation – The National

Revealed: How investigators say Riad Salameh conducted central bank embezzlement operation – The National

A broker with no clients, a contract that does not legally exist and an alleged middleman who took his secrets to the grave: judicial documents obtained by The National expose the mechanisms that allowed Lebanon's central bank chief Riad Salameh to allegedly profit from transactions between the regulator and local lenders.

The scheme, which resulted in the alleged embezzlement of $330 million dollars from Banque du Liban, began on April 6, 2002, when BDL signed a contract with Forry Associates Ltd, a company registered in the Virgin Islands and owned by the governor's brother, Raja Salameh.

Forry was supposed to act as an intermediary between the central bank and commercial banks in the purchase and sale of financial instruments such as Eurobonds, Lebanese Treasury bills and certificates of deposit.