At dawn on Friday, August 7, two moving trucks arrived at the Skyline building in Beirut’s Mar Mikhael district. Workers accompanying the trucks emptied the contents of two apartments in the building owned by actress Stephanie Saliba, who had been in a relationship with former Banque du Liban governor Riad Salameh and has been questioned repeatedly over suspicions involving financial dealings.

According to eyewitnesses, the two trucks left, carrying Saliba’s belongings to a destination that the building’s residents were unable to identify.

One of the actress’s neighbors pointed to a billboard opposite the building featuring Saliba in a jewelry advertisement and joked: “The building has become famous because of Stephanie, not because of the architect who designed it.”

Saliba’s home, comprising two apartments in the building, had been valued by Judge Ghada Aoun at more than $2 million after she questioned the actress. In a report Aoun submitted to the first investigating judge in Mount Lebanon, she said that Saliba, born in 1986, had acknowledged being in a romantic relationship with Banque du Liban governor Riad Salameh, born in 1950.

According to the report, Salameh lavished her with money and apartments, including one he purchased for her in 2017 in the Beit Misk residential complex on the Metn coast for $650,000.

The judge added that Saliba “owned two apartments on the 18th floor of the Skyline building, with a total area of 500 square meters.” Aoun asked Lebanon and Gulf Bank to lift banking secrecy on Saliba’s accounts to determine the source of her funds, but the bank refused.

In her report, Judge Aoun noted that Saliba had paid $100,000 in cash toward repairs to her home following the Beirut port explosion. Daraj asked one of the building’s residents whether he was aware of this. He said that residents had agreed at the time to pay their contributions toward the building’s restoration using bank checks — so-called “lollars” — and that Saliba was the only resident who paid her share in cash dollars. This took place at the height of Lebanon’s financial crisis, when banks were restricting depositors’ access to their savings.

But why did Saliba move her furniture out at dawn and leave the building with her dog, as residents told Daraj? The move coincided with the Lebanese judiciary issuing an arrest warrant for Salameh in his presence. If the aim was to preempt the possibility of Salameh’s assets being frozen, Saliba’s home is registered in her own name, not that of the former Banque du Liban governor.

Housing troubles have followed the actress since investigations into Riad Salameh began. Around two years ago, she was suddenly forced to leave a previous home she had rented in the BEIRUT TERRACES building in downtown Beirut, an even more luxurious development than Skyline, after being questioned by the Lebanese judiciary. At the time, her neighbors were similarly puzzled by her abrupt departure without warning.

A Lebanese judicial source confirmed to Daraj that the judiciary recently questioned Stephanie Saliba over a bank account linked to V-INVEST, a company suspected of being used by Salameh to carry out financial transfers.

The source said Saliba was released pending further investigation. Her decision to vacate the luxury residence in the Skyline building, designed by renowned architect Bernard Khoury, therefore does not appear to be linked to the possibility of authorities seizing Salameh’s assets. Rather, it may have been intended to preempt developments in the investigation involving V-INVEST. One of the actress’s neighbors, who suspected she had left Lebanon, said he had recently seen her in Dubai.

The story, then, most likely revolves around V-INVEST, the third company in a trio of commission-related firms allegedly used by Riad Salameh to channel commissions and now under investigation over suspected money laundering.

According to Banque du Liban’s lawsuit against Salameh, the central bank estimates that V-INVEST received $70 million in commissions from securities trading. Notably, Salameh allegedly used accounts belonging to two women with whom he was involved, Marianne Hoayek and Stephanie Saliba, to channel commissions from the same company, despite the rivalry between them. A journalist close to Hoayek had previously attacked Saliba during a television interview and spoken of a rivalry between the two women related to their relationships with Salameh.

In the investigation into V-INVEST, Daraj learned that investigators are also examining “gifts” Salameh allegedly gave Saliba and Hoayek: a Porsche and a Jaguar, one for each woman, paid for through the company’s accounts.

The company began carrying out transfers in 2016, after Forry, which had previously handled such transfers and was managed by Raja Salameh, the former governor’s brother, ceased operations.

A judicial source noted that the company was originally registered in a tax haven as a maritime transport company under the name of a member of the Daouk family, and that its stated business had nothing to do with financial transfers or bank accounts. The source added that many individuals benefited from transfers made through the company, not only Saliba and Hoayek.

The source said the company’s account was held at Al-Mawarid Bank, owned by Marwan Kheireddine, who is known to have been close to Salameh. Daraj also learned that Raja Salameh was responsible for managing the account.

According to these findings, Salameh, who is currently in prison, is facing trial on charges related to Forry ($330 million), Optimum ($110 million), and V-INVEST ($70 million).

Alongside the main proceedings, other investigations are underway that could lead to separate, smaller trials involving beneficiaries such as Saliba, Hoayek and others whom a judicial source described as “big names.”