BEIRUT, 13 July 2003 — Lebanon’s central bank yesterday accused the owners of private bank Al-Madina, which is facing a money-laundering probe, of stealing millions of dollars from mainly Saudi clients.
In a report published in the local press, the head of the Bank of Lebanon said the owners of Al-Madina “stole hundreds of millions of dollars and falsified accounts to cover up for these operations”. One of the bank’s owners, Adnan Abu Ayash, “took large sums belonging to the Saudi (Riyadh-based) company Al-Rashid, without informing his associates, and transferred them to his personal account at Al-Madina”, the report said.
Abu Ayash did not respect measures to protect the rights of depositors, it added, saying the central bank had asked for the bank’s management to be brought to justice.
Twenty individuals and two companies have had their assets frozen pending an investigation.
An earlier case against the bank, filed in February, was dropped after one of the owners, Mahmud Abu Ayash, pledged to deposit $150 million with the central bank to cope with a flood of withdrawals by customers.
Al-Madina’s debts in February stood at $1.2 billion and $500 million has since been paid out to depositors. Under Lebanese legislation, the assets of the directors of a bank suspected of money-laundering can be frozen for renewable five-day periods and banking secrecy lifted for the course of the investigation. In June, the anti-laundering group Gafi removed Lebanon from its blacklist of countries which it said were failing to cooperate with the battle against financial crimes.
