Nabil Aoun, collateral damage in the Riad Salameh’s case?

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In a difficult economic context for Lebanon, the governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salameh, one of the country's most powerful men, is the target of several international investigations.
The Riad Salameh case would also involve collateral victims. Nabil Aoun’s name has been put forward by certain Lebanese media. Between incomprehension and a desire for transparency, businessman Nabil Aoun is determined to give his truth.
The Riad Salameh case, an international case
At the head of the Lebanon Central Bank since 1993, Riad Salameh is the chief financial officer of a country that has seen a succession of media crises and legal scandals. Riad Salameh was appointed to the post at the same time as Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, and quickly established a consensus behind his actions. In the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, the New York Times praised his work in making Lebanon a “haven of stability and growth”.
15 years later, he is suspected of several embezzlements that enabled him to personally enrich himself, and has become the face of a political class that some describe as clientelist, or even mafia-like. He is suspected by several European courts of “embezzlement”, “financial malfeasance” and “money laundering”. He is said to have built up a particularly wealthy real estate and banking portfolio in Europe, through a number of complex and obscure financial arrangements and a massive embezzlement of Lebanese public funds.
This case, which is making headlines in Lebanon and Europe, is having an impact on personalities who are, at first glance, far from involved. Among them is Nabil Aoun. This Lebanese entrepreneur is said to have made a transfer of 1.8 million euros to Marianne Howayek, a close associate of Riad Salameh. Some see this as evidence of Nabil Aoun’s involvement in the Salameh case. Through his lawyer in France, Kami Haeri, Nabil Aoun now wishes to expose his truth.
Nabil Aoun sets the record straight
“Faced with the significant damage to which he and his family continue to be exposed, Mr. Aoun has decided to speak out through me in order to provide much-needed clarification,” says Haeri. “Nabil Aoun has never taken part in the alleged activities and operations described in the press as constituting the grievances against Mr. Salameh and his entourage, and has never even been aware of them,” says Kami Haeri.
“The only reason Mr. Aoun’s name has been mentioned in this case is that, in 2012, he agreed to do Mr. Riad Salameh a personal favor in good faith,” says Haeri. Nabil Aoun and Riad Salameh are indeed childhood friends and have known each other for over 60 years. In 2012, Mr. Salameh allegedly asked Mr. Aoun to do him a favor, which he presented as personal. This consisted in transferring funds from her father, Hamid Howayek, to a company owned by Ms. Howayek, who was close to Mr. Salameh at the time, and who, for family reasons, wanted the transfer to be done discreetly. “My client did a favor for a man he considered a sincere friend, and who was described by everyone in 2012 at the time of the events as the most honest man in Lebanon. He also checked all the details of this operation, with Riad Salameh included,” added the lawyer, who pointed out that Nabil Aoun had never met Ms. Howayek, Riad Salameh being the only person to have asked him for this “personal” service. Kami Haeri also points out the alleged absence of business links between his client and Riad Salameh: “Contrary to what has been written in such a rude and inaccurate manner, Mr. Aoun has built his career in the financial and non-banking sector, without ever receiving or seeking help from Mr. Salameh. He has never worked for, or with, the Central Bank of Lebanon has never been a consultant for it or for Mr Salameh, and has never been an intermediary in Eurobond transactions with the Central Bank of Lebanon or anyone else”.
“Mr. Aoun is fully confident”.
According to our information, confirmed by the lawyer, Nabil Aoun immediately showed himself available and voluntarily met the French and European judicial authorities several months ago, wishing to provide the necessary information on this personal favor to the judges in charge of the investigation. “Mr. Aoun is fully confident, for his part, of the outcome of the current investigations”, adds Kami Haeri.
Mr. Aoun’s lawyer also reserves the right to take legal action against “those who have manipulated him and implicated him unwillingly in operations that would appear to be illicit”.
Riad Salameh, the target of a French arrest warrant, has had his passports confiscated by the Lebanese judiciary and is forbidden to leave Lebanon. According to sources close to the case, the French Court of Appeal in Paris is due to rule on July 4 on the validity of the seizures made on Riad Salameh’s real estate and banking assets in Europe.