Architect of Lebanon’s recovery after the war, now accused of being one of those responsible for its collapse, the governor of the Banque du Liban Riad Salamé held the reins of the country’s finances for 30 years before leaving his post Monday in the reproach.
“I’m going to turn a page in my life, and I believe that over the 30 years, the Banque du Liban has contributed for 27 years through its monetary policies to establishing stability and growth,” said the former investment banker. Franco-Lebanese, 73 years old, in his last interview with a Lebanese channel.
Riad Salamé, prosecuted in Lebanon and in several European countries, defended his decried policies to the end and denied any financial embezzlement, while he is suspected of massive embezzlement of public funds and of having formed a rich real estate and banking heritage.
His mandate expires Monday without a successor being named, political differences in the country paralyzing any decision-making. It is, according to the law, the Deputy Prime Governor Wassim Mansouri who should succeed him.
Riad Salamé is targeted by two arrest warrants issued by France and Germany, but Lebanon refuses to extradite its nationals. French justice has made 12 seizures of its real estate and banking assets, worth tens of millions of euros.
The governor is also the subject of an investigation in Switzerland. In 2022, France, Germany and Luxembourg froze 120 million euros in assets suspected of belonging to him.
Since the beginning of the year, European judges have traveled to Lebanon three times to question him and his relatives, including his brother Raja.
In Lebanon, the court ordered the provisional seizure of property he is suspected of having acquired fraudulently.
Riad Salamé, who holds one of the records for longevity at the head of a central bank, has nevertheless been applauded for having been the architect of a financial policy which has enabled Lebanon to rebound after 15 years of war (1975 -1990).
But with the country’s descent into hell since the end of 2019, many hold him responsible, along with the political leaders to whom he is closely linked, for the ruin of Lebanon.
The governor defends himself and repeats having amassed his fortune when he worked in the American investment bank Merrill Lynch, where he managed the portfolio of assets of billionaire Rafic Hariri, who made his fortune in Saudi Arabia.
Became Prime Minister in 1992, Rafic Hariri – assassinated in 2005 – installed Riad Salamé at the head of the Central Bank, a post reserved for the Maronite Christian community under the confessional sharing of power in Lebanon.
It then fixes the exchange rate of the Lebanese pound against the dollar. Good years began for Lebanon, which attracted capital, in particular thanks to very high interest rates.
Riad Salamé accumulates laurels: he was named best governor of a central bank in the world by Euromoney in 2006 and by Banker Magazine in 2009.
But with the war that broke out in Syria in 2011, “red signals” are piling up for the Lebanese economy, explains economist Nicolas Chikhani.
Instead of restructuring the economy and abandoning his policy, which is beginning to cost Lebanon dearly, Mr. Salamé chooses “leap forward”, he explains.
From 2016, he embarked on financial arrangements compared to a “Ponzi pyramid”, and at the end of 2019, the collapse began which caused the Lebanese pound to lose more than 98% of its value.
While savers no longer have access to their money in banks, he helps political leaders transfer their capital abroad in October 2019, just before the collapse, “for a total of nine billion dollars”, according to a financial market specialist.
He explains that Mr. Salamé had presidential ambitions: “He refused nothing to the political class” and “protected the banks, whose main shareholders are politicians”.
But after enjoying the unwavering support of the political class, he said during his last interview that he now considered himself “a scapegoat”.
31/07/2023 10:24:45 – Beirut (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
