{"id":1411968,"date":"2022-03-31T07:46:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T11:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1411968"},"modified":"2022-03-31T07:46:10","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T11:46:10","slug":"lebanons-cenbank-chief-stays-away-from-corruption-hearing-state-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lebanons-cenbank-chief-stays-away-from-corruption-hearing-state-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Lebanon\u2019s cenbank chief stays away from corruption hearing -state media"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flebanons-cenbank-chief-stays-away-from-corruption-hearing-state-media%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1411968&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/2022-03-31T103602Z_1_LYNXNPEI2U0JR_RTROPTP_0_LEBANON-CRISIS-SALAMEH_1.jpg\" alt=\"FILE PHOTO: Lebanon&#039;s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh speaks during an interview in Beirut\" \/><br \/>FILE PHOTO: Lebanon&#8217;s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh speaks during an interview for Reuters Next conference, in Beirut, Lebanon November 23, 2021. REUTERS\/Mohamed Azakir\/File Photo<\/div>\n<p>March 31, 2022<\/p>\n<p>BEIRUT (Reuters) \u2013     Lebanese central bank chief Riad Salameh did not attend on Thursday a judicial hearing he was summoned to last week after being charged with corruption, prompting the judge to schedule a new hearing in June, state media reported.<\/p>\n<p>Salameh has denied the corruption charges when contacted by Reuters, saying he had ordered what he called an audit of his accounts which showed public funds were not a source of his wealth.<\/p>\n<p>The governor of nearly three decades, who has faced increased scrutiny since Lebanon\u2019s 2019 financial implosion, previously declined to provide the document to Reuters. <\/p>\n<p>Salameh had the legal right to skip Thursday\u2019s session and have his lawyer present a defense, lawyer Nizar Saghieh of watchdog NGO Legal Agenda told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>At Thursday\u2019s hearing a lawyer for Salameh presented a preliminary defence of his client against charges of illicit enrichment brought by prosecutor Ghada Aoun last week.<\/p>\n<p>Salameh did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.<\/p>\n<p>Days earlier, his younger brother Raja was arrested and formally charged with helping Salameh launder the proceeds of ill-gotten gains in a case Aoun said was related to the purchase and rental of Paris apartments, including to the central bank.<\/p>\n<p>A lawyer for Raja previously said allegations of illicit enrichment and money laundering against his client were unfounded. He called the evidence \u201cmedia speculation without any evidence\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The governor\u2019s wealth is also being investigated in at least five European countries, sparked by a Swiss probe into alleged embezzlement of $330 million at the central bank.<\/p>\n<p>Five European countries, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Monaco and Belgium on Monday froze 120 million euros in assets that German prosecutors said was tied to the embezzlement probe.<\/p>\n<p>The 71-year-old has previously attributed his wealth to investments he made while a banker at Merrill Lynch before he became governor in 1993.<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Enas Alashray and Timour Azhari; editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FILE PHOTO: Lebanon&#8217;s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh speaks during an interview for Reuters Next conference, in Beirut, Lebanon November 23, 2021. REUTERS\/Mohamed Azakir\/File Photo March 31, 2022 BEIRUT (Reuters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":287,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1411968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1411968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1411968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1411968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1411968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}