Reported by: David Gauthier-Villars

French prosecutors said on Monday they have put a Ukrainian woman linked to the governor of Lebanon’s central bank under formal investigation as part of a cross-border probe into alleged fraud to the detriment of the Lebanese state.

Anna Kosakova, with whom central bank governor Riad Salameh has a daughter, according to a birth certificate seen by Reuters, is suspected of aggravated money laundering, a spokesperson at the Paris office of the National Financial Prosecutors said.

The French investigation is part of coordinated efforts by prosecutors in Lebanon, as well as in Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Lichtenstein to determine whether Salameh used his position at the central bank, known as Banque du Liban (BDL), to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds.

Swiss authorities suspect Salameh, together with a brother, Raja Salameh, may have illegally taken more than $300 million from BDL between 2002 and 2015, laundering some of the money in Switzerland, according to Swiss court documents seen by Reuters.

Read full report: https://www.reuters.com/business/french-prosecutors-name-ukrainian-suspect-lebanese-central-bank-probe-2022-12-05/