New information indicates that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), as shareholders in Audi Bank, have advocated for a reshuffle in the bank’s senior leadership.
Their position is reportedly related to proceedings initiated by Accountability Now in France and Switzerland against the group’s chairman, Samir Hanna, in which the Banque du Liban (BDL) has emerged as a counterparty.
Accountability Now sources add:
The French financial Prosecutor office (PNF) confirms the launch of an investigation relating to a suspected 154 million dollar fraud involving Bank Audi, Mr. Samir Hanna, Mr. Riad Salame and a former senior official following a criminal complaint filed by ACTS Accountability Now.
It is suspected that the scheme aimed at allowing Mr. Salame to become an anonymous shareholder of Bank Audi, and to personally benefit from billions of dollars of profits made by the bank via the “financial engineering”. Further investigations are currently led by Accountability Now in relation to Bank Audi and Mr. Samir Hanna with respect to suspected embezzlement of public funds for their own benefit. The funds seem to have been partly reinvested in real estate in France.