Corruption is Everywhere > Governor of Lebanon's Central Bank wanted all over Europe

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Lebanon imposes travel ban on central bank chief

following French arrest warrant

A Lebanese judge has banned the country's central bank governor Riad Salameh from travelling, days after Beirut received an Interpol Red Notice following a French arrest warrant, a judicial official said Wednesday. 

Issued on: 25/05/2023 - 10:04

2 min

Text by: NEWS WIRES

File photo: Lebanese Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh attends a news conference in Beirut

on November 11, 2019. © Hussein Malla, AP

Salameh has been the target of a series of judicial investigations both at home and abroad on allegations including embezzlement, money laundering, fraud and illicit enrichment, which he denies.

French investigators suspect that during his three decades as central bank chief, Salameh misused public funds to accumulate real estate and banking assets concealed through a complex and fraudulent financial network.

On Wednesday, judge Imad Qabalan questioned Salameh and "decided to release him pending investigation, ban him from travelling, and confiscate his Lebanese and French passports", the official told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Activists say the travel ban on the central bank chief helps shield him from being brought to justice abroad -- and from potentially bringing down others in Lebanon's entrenched political class.

"The Lebanese judiciary, with the exception of a few judges, has shown that it is not independent. It is biased for politicians who steer it the way they want," charged lawyer and activist Karim Daher.

"The corrupt Lebanese regime... has no interest in Salameh being tried abroad and spilling the beans" about the political class's financial activities, he told AFP.

Interpol circulated a Red Notice last week after a French magistrate issued a warrant for Salameh, who failed to appear for questioning in Paris before investigators probing his sizeable assets across Europe.

An Interpol Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant but asks authorities worldwide to provisionally detain people pending possible extradition or other legal actions.

Lebanon does not extradite its nationals but Salameh could go on trial in Lebanon if local judicial authorities decide the accusations against him are founded, an official previously told AFP.

Qabalan asked the French judiciary to refer Salameh's file to Beirut in order to "determine whether the Lebanese judiciary will prosecute him for the crimes he is accused of in France or not", the official added. Salameh "asked the judge to try him in Lebanon and not to extradite him to France", the official said.

German warrant

Also Wednesday, Germany notified Lebanon's general prosecutor that it too had issued an arrest warrant for Salameh, the judicial official said, adding that Munich's public prosecutor would submit the warrant to Interpol shortly.

Salameh has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and continues to serve as central bank governor. His mandate ends in July.

In March 2022, France, Germany and Luxembourg seized assets worth 120 million euros ($130 million) in a move linked to a probe into Salameh's wealth.

In February, Lebanon charged Salameh with embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion as part of its own investigations.

The domestic probe was opened following a request for assistance from Switzerland's public prosecutor looking into more than $300 million in fund movements by Salameh and his brother.

This year, European investigators have questioned Salameh in Beirut, also hearing from his assistant Marianne Hoayek, his brother Raja, a Lebanese minister and central bank audit firms.

The judicial official said Wednesday that a judge had notified Raja Salameh and Hoayek that they were due to appear before the French judiciary respectively on May 31 and June 13.

Since 2019, Lebanon has plunged into an economic crisis deemed by the World Bank as one of the planet's worst since the mid-19th century.

(AFP)

South Korean Prosecutors Seek Arrest Warrant for Korean Air Chairman

Corruption is Everywhere

 - and it's completely trashed this once powerful South Korean family

By Wooyoung Lee 

Korean Air Lines Co. Chairman Cho Yang-ho appears at a prosecution office in Seoul on June 28, 2018, to undergo questioning over allegations of tax evasion, breach of trust and embezzlement. Photo by Yonhap

SEOUL, UPI -- South Korean prosecutors issued an arrest warrant Monday for Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho for charges of inheritance tax evasion and embezzlement, among others.

Cho was summoned for a 15-hour questioning last week over such allegations at the Seoul Prosecutors' Office.

He has been under probe over suspicion that he evaded taxes for more than $45 million (50 billion won) in his inheritance of overseas properties from his father Cho Joong-hoon, the founder of Korean Air Lines, according to Yonhap.

Cho is also accused of paying his lawyer's fee from the company budget when his daughter Cho Hyun-ah, then the Korean Air vice president, was under trial over the notorious "nut rage" incident in 2014.

He also allegedly paid another lawyer's fee with the company fund when he was being investigated over a scandal, in which he received an unfair request to hire a lawmaker's relative in 2015.

Cho also faces an allegation of raising illicit profits from running a pharmacy.

It is the third time that a key member of the Korean Air founding family was called for an investigation and sought with an arrest warrant. Earlier, prosecutors requested arrest warrants for Cho's wife Lee Myung-hee for charges of illegally hiring foreign housekeepers, assault and verbal abuse.

Cho's daughter Hyun-min, the former vice president of Korean Air Lines' budget Jin Air, was also accused of assault from throwing a cup of water to a business meeting attendee.

The court, however, declined to issue arrest warrants for both mother and daughter.

You would almost think this family had made some powerful political enemies considering some of the charges leveled at them. Regardless of whether or not they have enemies, they seem to keep giving them ammunition to shot them with. Both daughters resigned from the airlines in April, and the father resigned in May (2nd story on link). 

One Officer Charged, 16 More Under Investigation in Small City Police Force

Abbotsford Police Department spokesman Const. Ian MacDonald speaks to reporters
about the investigation into a number of officers for offences under the Police Act

A constable with the Abbotsford Police Department in British Columbia, Canada is facing criminal charges and 16 other officers are under investigation for allegations related to the integrity of statements used in a number of criminal cases to obtain search warrants.

Const. Christopher Nicholson has been charged with  breach of trust, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to traffic a controlled substance, the Office of the Police Complaints Commission (OPCC) said in a statement released Wednesday.

Nicholson was arrested and charged in May 2013, but the OPCC said disclosure of the charges was delayed until now in order to complete a number of "sensitive investigative steps." The officer has been suspended without pay.

At a news conference Wednesday, Abbotsford police Chief Bob Rich said the probe started after information was received that a police officer was supplying information to a drug dealer so the dealer could avoid being arrested.

"In the fall of 2012, two of our members came forward and said they thought we had a problem with one of our members and their integrity showed that day, and we immediately took their concerns seriously and ended up asking Vancouver [Police Department] to take on an investigation into the conduct of Const. Nicholson," Rich said.

Abbotsford, PD

The chief pointed out that the investigation into the other 16 officers is for alleged misconduct under the Police Act, not the Criminal Code.

"We have a large number of members under investigation under the Police Act. I need you to understand that if I did not have confidence in the integrity of these members, I would have suspended them. I have not done that," he said.

Vancouver Police Department Chief Jim Chu said his force's eight-month investigation determined an Abbotsford police officer was supplying false information to other officers in order to obtain search warrants for private homes.

"He [Nicholson] also allegedly conspired with a confidential informant to have drugs delivered to a residence and have other police officers conduct a search warrant soon after," Chu said.

Court cases may have been compromised

The OPCC said the Vancouver Police Department investigation uncovered further allegations of misconduct against 16 other members of the Abbotsford Police Department, which has 217 officers.

It also determined many of the allegations against officers deal with the information provided to judicial officials in order to obtain search warrants.

The Office of the Police Complaints Commission says it's trying to determine whether prosecutions were compromised by unreliable search warrant information.

​"Furthermore, what remains an active concern to the OPCC is the extent to which the search warrants in issue may have contributed to potentially unsafe prosecutions," said the statement.

The OPCC said it has not been able to adequately determine the extent to which prosecutions may have been compromised "due to the lack of adequate disclosure from the police."

It said that delay is due to legal impediments arising from the complexity of the case and the sheer magnitude of investigative materials.

"Several investigations have been suspended pending the disclosure of the investigative materials in order to ensure that the related criminal proceedings are not prejudiced," said the OPCC statement.

After he was charged in May 2013, Nicholson made his first appearance in B.C. Supreme Court in July. His trial date has been set for May 26, 2016, and his next scheduled court appearance is Aug 28.

The OPCC will release a summary of its final report on the investigation to the public once its probe is complete.

This is a shocker to me. As a resident of Abbotsford, I have great respect and admiration for the city police. It's a bit shaken now, but with men like the two who came forward, it should not be shaken for long.