The Central Bank of Lebanon announced a package of domestic and international legal actions targeting individuals and entities alleged to have embezzled, misused or dissipated the central bank’s funds, or to have breached its circulars. The governor set out a dual track focused on recovering assets allegedly diverted by insiders and external parties and on asserting the central bank’s legal right to funds placed at the disposal of successive governments up to the end of 2023, with recovered amounts intended to provide liquidity for repaying depositors. In Lebanon, the central bank filed a criminal complaint against a former Central Bank of Lebanon official and a former banker, alleging the use of four offshore shell companies in the Cayman Islands to recycle and misappropriate funds, resulting in illicit enrichment and raising suspicions of money laundering and bribery. It also decided to join, as a civil party claimant, a pending case involving a company named Fori, suspected of receiving unlawful commissions linked to securities transactions conducted with the central bank, and it continued pursuing other pending cases in which it has already taken civil party status, including matters involving a former senior official and two former lawyers to the bank. Additional actions are being prepared against specified entities and companies, not commercial banks, linked to a “consultancy account” described as having been used for systematic abuse. Separately, the central bank issued a notice stating that any breach of its circulars constitutes an offence under Article 770 of the Penal Code, and it has begun requesting information from Lebanese banks on foreign transfers and cash withdrawals by bank board members, managers, politically exposed persons and their relatives, with disclosures to be provided to the Lebanese judiciary as required under the amended banking secrecy law. The Central Bank of Lebanon is also preparing a document-backed report to quantify all amounts placed at the disposal of the Lebanese government over prior decades up to the end of 2023, covering more than the USD 16.5 billion formally acknowledged by the state via the Ministry of Finance and including, among other items, support programmes and payments made on behalf of the Ministry of Energy and Water and Electricité du Liban. On the international track, it has initiated legal steps and joined pending proceedings in France, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, and is following investigations in Switzerland and Germany, including coordination on the Swiss matter; the governor also said he will voluntarily meet the French investigating judge before the end of January 2026 to exchange sensitive information.

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