PARIS: France has opened a probe into the personal wealth of Riad Salameh, central bank chief in crisis-hit Lebanon, sources told AFP Sunday.
Paris financial prosecutors have opened a preliminary probe into criminal association and money laundering by Salameh, a source close to the investigation and a judicial source said, following a similar move by Switzerland.
Its findings could shed light onto the origins of the 70-year-old former Merill Lynch banker’s wealth.
In post since 1993 and once hailed by political and business leaders, Salameh has been repeatedly accused by the government of caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab of being responsible for the collapse of the Lebanese pound.
The Lebanese public suspect him and other high officials of transferring money abroad during a 2019 uprising, when ordinary people were prevented from doing so.
Lebanon has since been hit by an economic crisis which the World Bank says is one of the worst anywhere since the 19th century.
Close to the powerful Hariri family, Salameh has been under investigation for months in Switzerland on suspicion of serious money laundering and embezzlement from the Bank of Lebanon.
He also owns several properties in France and may have transferred money via the country.
One of the criminal complaints that prompted French prosecutors to get involved came from Swiss foundation Accountability Now, daily Le Monde reported.
Another was filed by anti-financial crime group Sherpa and by the Collective of Victims of Fraudulent and Criminal Practices in Lebanon, set up by savers devastated by the post-2019 crisis.
The French move signals the start of “a universal mega-investigation across Europe,” said William Bourdon and Amelie Lefebvre, lawyers for Sherpa and the savers’ collective.
“Enormous money laundering operations will be examined, which ought to open every nook and cranny of the mafia that has brought Lebanon to its knees,” they hope.
Their criminal complaint, seen by AFP, accuses Salameh and people close to him — his brother Raja, his son Nadi, a nephew and an aide at the central bank — of fraudulently building a vast fortune in Europe.
The groups urge the judiciary to investigate massive capital flight from Lebanon since the crisis began, as well as property purchases out of all proportion to the buyers’ income and the roles played by financial intermediaries, tax havens and strawmen.
Based especially on reports by Lebanese website Daraj.com and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, the plaintiffs believe that Salameh’s worldwide total wealth amounts to more than $2 billion.
He contests that figure, saying his holdings stem from inheritances, his banking career and legitimate investments since taking office in 1993.
The French prosecutors’ investigation is the latest in a string of probes into “ill-gotten gains” of foreign leaders — especially from Africa or the Middle East.
France probes Lebanese central bank chief’s wealth
https://arab.news/bv57m
France probes Lebanese central bank chief’s wealth
- In post since 1993 and once hailed by political and business leaders, Salameh has been repeatedly accused by the government of caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab of being responsible for the collapse of the Lebanese pound
Global trade isn’t deglobalizing — it’s reshuffling, Harvard economist says
ALULA: Global trade is not retreating into deglobalization despite geopolitical shocks, but is instead undergoing a structural reshuffling led by US-China tensions, according to Harvard University economist Pol Antras.
Presenting research at the AlUla Emerging Market Economies Conference, Antras said there is no evidence that countries are systematically turning inward. Instead, trade flows are being redirected across markets, creating winners and losers depending on export structure and exposure to Chinese competition.
This comes as debate intensifies over whether supply-chain disruptions, industrial policy and rising trade barriers signal the end of globalization after decades of expansion.
Speaking to Arab News on the sidelines of the event, Antras said: “I think the right way to view it is more a reorganization, where things are moving from some countries to others rather than a general trend where countries are becoming more inward looking, in a sense of producers selling more of their stuff domestically than internationally, or consumers buying more domestic products than foreign products.”
He said a change of that scale has not yet happened, which is important to recognize when navigating the reshuffling — a shift his research shows is driven by Chinese producers redirecting sales away from the US toward other economies.
He added that countries are affected differently, but highlighted that the Kingdom’s position is relatively positive, stating: “In the case of Saudi Arabia, for instance, its export structure, what it exports, is very different than what China exports, so in that sense it’s better positioned so suffer less negative consequences of recent events.”
He went on to say that economies likely to be more negatively impacted than the Kingdom would be those with more producers in sectors exposed to Chinese competition. He added that while many countries may feel inclined to follow the United States’ footsteps by implementing their own tariffs, he would advise against such a move.
Instead, he pointed to supporting producers facing the shock as a better way to protect and prepare economies, describing it as a key step toward building resilience — a view Professor Antras underscored as fundamental.
Elaborating on the Kingdom’s position amid rising tensions and structural reorganization, he said Saudi Arabia holds a relative advantage in its economic framework.
“Saudi Arabia should not be too worried about facing increased competitive pressures in selling its exports to other markets, by its nature. On the other hand, there is a benefit of the current situation, which is when Chinese producers find it hard to sell in US market, they naturally pivot to other markets.”
He said that pivot could benefit importing economies, including Saudi Arabia, by lowering Chinese export prices. The shift could increase the Kingdom’s import volumes from China while easing cost pressures for domestic producers.
