Share
Copied
Lebanon's Central Bank building is pictured behind a razor wire fence, in Beirut, Lebanon October 5, 2022. / REUTERS
French prosecutors said on Monday they have put a Ukrainian woman linked to the governor of Lebanon's central bank under formal investigation as part of a cross-border probe into alleged fraud to the detriment of the Lebanese state.
Anna Kosakova, with whom central bank governor Riad Salameh has a daughter, according to a birth certificate seen by Reuters, is suspected of aggravated money laundering, a spokesperson at the Paris office of the National Financial Prosecutors said.
Kosakova, who was notified about the preliminary charges on June 14, had to hand over her passport and was ordered not to leave France, the spokesperson said, confirming a report by French online journal Mediapart.
A lawyer for Kosakova said he and his client would "react very soon" to the French prosecutors' decisions.
Salameh, who has not been named as a suspect by French prosecutors but who had some of his real estate assets in France seized as part of the investigation, did not respond to a message seeking comment.
A French lawyer for Salameh, Pierre-Olivier Sur, said the June decision on Kosakova "doesn't change anything". He said they were waiting for a French court to hear their challenge of the property seizures.
The French investigation is part of coordinated efforts by prosecutors in Lebanon, as well as in Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Lichtenstein to determine whether Salameh used his position at the central bank, known as Banque du Liban (BDL), to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds.
(With input from Reuters)
Search Trends
SITEMAP
Copyright © 2023 CGTN. 京ICP备16065310号
Disinformation report hotline: 010-85061466
SITEMAP
Copyright © 2023 CGTN. 京ICP备16065310号
Disinformation report hotline: 010-85061466