The European investigation began on Monday with several witnesses over the embezzlement and money laundering that Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh and others close to him in European countries are alleged to have committed.
This article was originally published in, and translated from, Lebanese newspaper Nidaa Al Watan.
The investigation will be conducted with banks' officials and chairpersons of the banks' boards of directors.
To establish the requisite connection with operations that may have been used for money laundering, they would most likely be questioned about the possibility of transfers from Raja Salameh's accounts to the account of his brother Riad Salameh and others close.
Raja's accounts in various Lebanese banks are the result of commissions for a contract with "Forry" company which played (theoretically) the role of mediator between the Banque du Liban (BDL) and other banks. This is especially in terms of the marketing of underwriting with securities, bonds, sovereign debts, and certificates of deposit in BDL.
Furthermore, these transactions were transferred to European banks, and then large amounts were returned from them to several Lebanese banks. However, a number of these banks in Lebanon were included in the Lebanese investigations, most notably: Mediterranean bank, Audi, Saradar, Credit Libanais, Al-Mawarid Bank, and BML.
However, some sources confirmed that "many witnesses have already claimed that they did not hear about the "Forry" company until after it was mentioned in the European investigations."
Sources also added that they do not know who Raja Salameh is under banking secrecy, noting that the company was involved between 2002 and 2014 in marketing securities with the same banks, whose officials denied their prior knowledge of it.
Those officials had also confirmed that the commissions they paid were to BDL and not to the company mentioned above, which means there is a suspicion of embezzlement of public money.
The sources then stated that the European investigators have "all foreign operations with all the details, adding that they only lack verification of transfers between Raja and Riad Salameh and others close to this family.
The same sources mentioned that the concerned banks had previously filed statements of accounts to the Banking Control Commission after last year's escalation.
It is known that there is no bank secrecy before European investigations under the United Nations Convention against corruption, which Lebanon signed in 2009.
The investigators are supposed to request statements and transfers that the French judge, Aude Buresi, previously requested during her visit to Lebanon last summer. This was with other question marks raised over a specific bank about related accounts and how their amounts were multiplying in short periods to rise to a peak in 2009, then to sharply decrease due to transfers as in the year 2019, before the financial meltdown in Lebanon.
However, many developments in the 'political-judicial-security pursuit' of the families of the Beirut Port blast have taken place, intending to silence and intimidate them and discouraging them from insisting on revealing the truth and holding the perpetrators accountable in the case.
Moreover, several families and prominent port blast case activist William Noon met with Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai in Bkerki, whereby the latter underlined the need to be careful not to exploit their case.
During his Sunday sermon, Rai condemned the arrest of Noon, saying that what happened showed how the judiciary has become a way to revenge.
On the other hand, Rai mentioned the presidential vacancy, saying it is a "plan in preparation to create a vacuum in the Maronite and Christian positions."
In this context, Lebanese Forces party chief Samir Geagea stressed that "they want to get rid of Hezbollah domination.