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Economic journalist Mounir Younes, in an interview with Daraj, argued that the decision to release Riad Salameh on bail reflects a narrow vision and a limited interpretation of the law, both in terms of the concept of crime and its scope and dimensions. “We are facing a defendant unlike any other, and he may not even have the right to be granted release,” he said.

A legal source, however, told Daraj that Salameh will not pay the required amount and may not even want to leave detention, as it could be in his best interest to remain there. “He summers in Bhannes and winters in a chalet in Beirut,” the source added, noting that one expected reason for him to stay is protection from European investigations, especially since the trial in Lebanon has not yet begun despite the cases already filed.

A French Judicial Document

Daraj obtained a judicial document, one of the letters exchanged between the French and Lebanese judiciaries. It is a “request for information” dated April 7, 2022, sent by the Paris Court of Appeal, specifically, a letter from the office of Vice President and Investigating Judge Aude Buresi to the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation in Beirut. This request came in response to a letter sent on August 17, 2021, which Buresi’s office had received on October 5 of the same year.

The document details the charges against Salameh, which include committing acts of money laundering within an organized criminal group, conspiring with others to commit a felony punishable by ten years in prison, and carrying out money laundering offenses aggravated by the fact that they were committed by an organized group. He is also accused of conspiring with others with the intent of committing felonies carrying similar penalties.

According to the French authorities, Salameh is under investigation not only in Paris and throughout French territory but also in Lebanon, Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco, the United Kingdom, Germany, Jersey, Luxembourg, Singapore, the United States, Ireland, and Liechtenstein. He faces accusations of committing money laundering aggravated by organized crime, conspiracy with others, and concealing the proceeds of these crimes, all punishable by up to ten years in prison.

Riad Salameh’s Family

Noor & Reem Salameh

The investigations extend to Salameh’s family, particularly his daughters Noor and Reem. Noor Salameh is a partner in the French real estate company SCI YAL with her former husband, Shafik Abou El-Lamaa. She owns numerous properties in France, valued at several million euros, amounts that appear inconsistent with her declared income. According to the document, her father is suspected of being the financier of these acquisitions. For instance, on May 7, 2021, Noor purchased a property at 138 rue Montmartre in Paris for €1,150,000 without taking out a loan.

Her sister Reem also owns properties in France, which she obtained as gifts from their father.

Nadi Salameh

Nadi Salameh is the son of Riad Salameh. He was a Category A manager at the company Bnet before being appointed chairman of the board on June 22, 2012. This company manages properties in Belgium owned by Riad Salameh through 209 BR.

Nadi owns numerous real estate properties in France and the United Kingdom. Their value, amounting to several million euros, appears inconsistent with his declared income. According to the French judicial document, his father is suspected of being the financier of these assets. It also appears that since 2006, Nadi has been the beneficiary of an account opened at HSBC Banking Genève, a credit account worth 4.6 million US dollars (about 3.6 million euros), under the name of Naranore Limited, a Panamanian company established in 2003.

It is worth recalling that Nadi Salameh played a central role in managing and executing the family’s vast investments in Europe, especially through companies registered in Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, and the UK. He held managerial positions in several European investment firms, including Scan Product House Limited, which managed a luxury apartment in London that later became registered in his name. He had managed the property since 2014, before the ownership was fully transferred to him in January 2017, according to an investigation by Daraj and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

Nadi also managed or represented several family-linked companies such as Louise 209 A2, PR 209 Invest SA, Followood Invest SARL, Stockwell Investissement SA, and H-Invest GmbH. These entities were involved in acquiring commercial and residential properties worth millions of dollars in the UK, Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

Documents reveal that these properties and assets were often registered under offshore companies managed either by Nadi or by Riad Salameh’s nephews, with the aim of concealing the true beneficial owner—Riad Salameh himself.

Anna Kosakova

Anna Kosakova is the mother of Elizabeth Salameh, daughter of Riad Salameh. She owns several properties in France valued at more than 14 million euros through the French real estate company SCI ZEL. These properties were gifted to her by Riad Salameh via the Luxembourg-based company BET S.A. It also appears that Elizabeth Salameh received, through this transfer, ownership rights to shares in this company, according to the French judicial document.

Kosakova, 49, is a Ukrainian national known as the former partner and close companion of Riad Salameh, the former governor of Lebanon’s Central Bank. She has been a central figure in international investigations into money laundering and corruption linked to Salameh’s vast fortune in Europe. In 2007, Salameh publicly acknowledged their daughter, Elizabeth.

Anna Kosakova chaired and managed several companies in France and Luxembourg, most notably BET SA, ZEL, and Eciffice, which were used to purchase and manage properties worth no less than 10 million euros in France. These companies received financial transfers from Forry Associates to buy luxury apartments and office spaces, including properties for both Kosakova and Salameh in one of Paris’s most exclusive neighborhoods, as well as an office building on the Champs-Élysées, from which the Central Bank of Lebanon rented space as a business continuity center, according to a statement from the US Treasury Department.

In France, Kosakova was formally charged with criminal conspiracy (association de malfaiteurs), money laundering as part of an organized group (blanchiment en bande organisée), and laundering the proceeds of aggravated tax fraud, all tied to the case of embezzlement from Lebanon’s central bank and her links to Riad Salameh.

As of June 2022, she was removed from the management of BET, ZEL, and Eciffice, placed under judicial supervision, and banned from traveling by the French authorities. The United States imposed sanctions on her in August 2023, followed by the United Kingdom, which sanctioned her under the UK Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regulations 2021 in the same month.

Request for Disclosure of Raja Salameh’s Accounts

The judicial document reviewed by Daraj points to suspicions that Riad Salameh concealed illicit income and transferred it by granting gifts to his relatives and close associates. This explains why the request for judicial cooperation also included those individuals.

One of the most prominent among them is Riad’s younger brother, Raja Salameh. In a memorandum submitted through his lawyer, Riad Salameh stated that he had entrusted his brother with managing a large portion of his personal assets. As a result, Raja Salameh opened accounts in his own name in which funds belonging to Riad were deposited.

According to the judicial document, the Forry account received more than $326 million through 310 bank transactions between April 2002 and October 2014, originating from the Central Bank of Lebanon (account number LB02099900000001XXXXXXXXXXXX). Of this, $248 million was almost immediately transferred to a personal account of Raja Salameh at HSBC Suisse. An additional $207 million was transferred to accounts owned by Raja in Lebanese banks—including BankMed, BLC Bank, Crédit Libanais, Credit Bank SAL, Bank Audi, and Saradar Bank—accompanied by the designation “personal expenses.”

At the end of the letter, the French judiciary requested the Lebanese judiciary to provide details of Raja Salameh’s bank accounts at the following Lebanese banks:

BankMed: LB28002200000000XXXXXXXXXXXX

BLC Bank: LB830011XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

BML: LB700003XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Credit Bank SAL: LB060103XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Crédit Libanais: LB430053XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Bank Audi–Saradar: LB320027XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Bank Audi Private: LB360027XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The question remains whether the Lebanese judiciary cooperated with the French request to disclose Raja Salameh’s accounts in order to pursue investigations into the former Central Bank governor.

The Release of Riad Salameh

In the last week of August 2025, the Beirut Indictment Chamber announced its decision to release former Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh on bail, set at 20 million US dollars and five million Lebanese pounds, along with a one-year travel ban. The decision was described as the largest bail amount in Lebanon’s history.

In an interview with Daraj, journalist Mounir Younes rejected calling it the largest bail, arguing that it is a matter of proportion. “A defendant accused of stealing 500 million cannot have his crime measured against twenty million. If he only pays twenty million, that is practically nothing,” he said, emphasizing that “we are dealing with a defendant unlike any other.”

There are exceptions to bail, such as when the crime causes widespread danger. In this context, the collapse of the national currency and the destruction of the banking sector could be read as risks that affect all segments of society. With regard to security cases, the law prohibits granting bail to defendants in cases involving state security. It seems that the spirit of the law relates to security in its broadest sense, which includes economic, financial, and banking security, not only direct physical security. Therefore, state security is a composite concept, and under Article 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Riad Salameh could have been excluded from bail.

It is also worth noting that Salameh’s release came in the case concerning consultancy accounts, and does not cover other files, such as commissions involving the company Optimum, estimated at eight billion dollars, the Forry case valued at 330 million dollars, and the cases brought by Judge Ghada Aoun.

The Relationship with HSBC Geneva

Former Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh maintained a strong relationship with HSBC. Between 2002 and 2015, around $330 million was transferred from the Central Bank of Lebanon to Forry Associates’ account at HSBC Geneva through more than 300 transactions. Between 2006 and 2013, the bank was repeatedly warned about the suspicious nature of this account, yet the account manager consistently defended it—or perhaps colluded—to keep it active despite the red flags.

It was only in the summer of 2020 that the bank finally reported the suspicious account to Switzerland’s anti-money laundering authority, triggering an investigation there, followed by investigations in other jurisdictions. This report came after HSBC had already closed the account in 2016.

On June 24, 2024, Switzerland’s financial markets regulator FINMA announced in a press release that HSBC Private Bank had “seriously breached its obligations to investigate money-laundering risks” concerning two politically exposed persons. The regulator ordered the bank not to enter into new business relationships with politically exposed persons until all current relationships had been reviewed.

Between April 2002 and March 2015, nearly $330 million was transferred from the Central Bank of Lebanon to Forry Associates’ account at HSBC Private Bank in Geneva, through more than 300 transactions. Forry Associates was registered in the British Virgin Islands, with no office or employees, and its beneficial owner was Raja Salameh, the brother of Riad Salameh, according to Public Eye.

Out of the hundreds of millions that reached Geneva, $207 million was sent back to Lebanon to Raja Salameh’s accounts in four local banks, recorded as “personal expenses.”

According to a previous investigation by Daraj citing Public Eye, “it is alleged that the former Central Bank governor and his offshore structure received—directly or indirectly—more than 26 million US dollars, 9.2 million euros, and 5.3 million Swiss francs from Forry Associates. These funds were used to invest in real estate and securities in Switzerland and abroad.”