Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has rushed to defend himself after being hit by a complaint accusing him of offenses including money laundering.
Beirut- Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday defended his “integrity” and “transparent” assets, following a complaint filed in France accusing him of money laundering and other offenses.
Two associations filed a complaint against Mikati with France’s financial prosecutor’s office, accusing him of fraudulently building up assets in France and other countries, a source close to the case told AFP on Wednesday.
The complainant said that the Lebanese public considers Mikati, his brother Taha, and their entourage as “the embodiment… of the clientelism and conflict of interest that have led Lebanon to its downfall”.
In a statement sent to AFP and other media, Mikati said: “We strongly reaffirm that the source of our family wealth is entirely transparent, legitimate, and in full compliance with the law.”
The complaint lodged by the CVPFCL financial crimes victim’s collective of Lebanon, and the Sherpa anti-corruption association, accuses Mikati of money laundering, concealment or complicity, and criminal conspiracy as part of an organised gang.
Mikati made his fortune in telecoms and in June 2022 became prime minister of Lebanon for the third time.
The two associations accuse him and his brother of having likely “acquired various properties in France and abroad, via multiple structures and through extremely large financial transfers”.
Those include properties in Monaco and Saint Jean-Cap-Ferrat, on France’s Mediterranean coast; a 79-metre yacht “acquired for 100 million dollars”; and two Falcon jets, valued at around 95 million dollars.
Taha Mikati also reportedly owns a yacht worth $125 million.
According to Forbes magazine, the two brothers are worth $2.8 billion, making them among the richest people in Lebanon.
In his statement, Mikati insisted that no family member nor business “has been found guilty by any court, whether in Lebanon or anywhere else in the world”.
The statement added that “attempts to discredit” the family were “unfounded and often politically-motivated”.
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It said that a Beirut judge in February 2022 and a Monaco court in August 2023 had dismissed charges against the family.
But the plaintiffs claimed that “since the mid-1990s, corruption has been intimately linked to the functioning of the state”, which the brothers have benefitted from.
“Mikati’s systemic use of offshore accounts and tax havens” and the “culture of corruption and conflicts of interest” that he embodies, make him and his family “widely suspected of large scale laundering (and) tax fraud over many years”, added the plaintiffs’ lawyers William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth.
Several of the Mikati brothers’ children are suspected of receiving some of the allegedly laundered money.
Sherpa previously lodged a complaint against Riad Salameh, the former governor of Lebanon’s central bank, who has faced French and German international arrest warrants since 2023 and is sanctioned by the US, Canada, and the UK.
Subsidized housing
This is not the first time that Mikati has been accused of unjust enrichment
In 2019 he was charged by Mount Lebanon Public Prosecutor Ghada Aoun with unjust enrichment based on allegations that he and his family members received subsidized housing loans that were intended for Lebanon’s poor families . The subsidized loans were part of the ISKAN Housing Loan program, in collaboration with the Public Corporation for Housing, available in USD and LBP
According to Lebanese media reports the disgraced former Lebanon Central Bank chief Riad Salameh helped Mikati through the ISKAN bank to acquire several apartments in Beirut that were intended for the poor, a charge that Mikati denied .
Mikati was a key supporter of Salameh who resigned at the end of his term. One reporter once asked Mikati if he planned to fire Salameh , Mikati reportedly responded ” You don’t fire officers in a battle ”
New Arab/ Xinhua/ YL
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