Forensic audit into Lebanon's central bank reveals misconduct and 'illegitimate' commissions
A forensic audit into Lebanon’s central bank by a New York-based company has revealed yearslong misconduct by the bank’s former governor and $111 million in “illegitimate commissions.”
BEIRUT — A forensic audit into Lebanon’s central bank by a New York-based company has revealed yearslong misconduct by the bank's former governor and $111 million in “illegitimate commissions,” according to a report by the company.
It's the latest chapter in the saga of Lebanon's embattled former central bank governor Riad Salameh, 73, who ended his 30-year career as governor last month under a cloud of investigation and blame for his country’s economic meltdown.
A copy of the 331-page document by Alvarez & Marsal, seen by The Associated Press, was handed over to parliament on Friday. The audit was among key demands by the international community and the International Monetary Fund, which over the years increasingly lost confidence in crisis-hit Lebanon.
Lebanon's government and Alvarez & Marsal signed a contract in September 2021 but the audit subsequently stalled. It covers the period between 2015 and 2020; Lebanon’s economic meltdown began in October 2019.
Alvarez & Marsal said the central bank's “refusal to provide direct access to its systems and to allow work to be conducted” on its premises had “significantly delayed and slowed” the audit.
The report in one section focuses, among other things, on the practice of so-called financial engineering that started in 2015 and was used by the central bank to allow local lenders to attract dollar deposits from abroad and then encourage the banks to deposit the dollars at the central bank. In return, the lenders were given interest rates higher than international market rates.
“Financial
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