Luxurious offices on the prestigious Avenue des Champs-Elysees, an ex-French central banker and a mysterious Ukrainian woman in Paris. This seemingly eclectic list has a common denominator: a connection to Lebanese central bank governor Riad Salameh, who is suspected of having embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds.
There is a lot we know about in the French investigation into Mr Salameh in relation to multimillion-euro luxury apartments in Paris bought with funds allegedly misappropriated from Lebanon's central bank.
The assets under scrutiny include undeclared Banque du Liban offices at 66 Avenue des Champs-Elysees leased to Eciffice Business Centre for €5 million from 2011 to 2021, as revealed in French judicial documents obtained by The National.
Eciffice's manager, Anna Kosakova, a 46-year-old Ukrainian woman, is Mr Salameh's romantic partner of over two decades, with whom he has a daughter. She drew a monthly salary of €2,000 from the company.
These offices were supposed to be a “recovery centre” providing a back-up server in case of failure in the Beirut main office, but turned out to have “no operational justification”, according to the French judiciary.
But the tangled web of evidence keeps unravelling, with new information and characters coming to light.
One such figure is Christian Noyer. The former French central banker, who held the position of head of the institution from 2003 to 2015, became the subject of a separate preliminary investigation launched by the France National Financial Prosecutor's Office in April 2022 around the allegation of an illegal conflict of interest, as confirmed by a French judicial source speaking to The National.
'Lack of denunciation of the anomalies'
This is where the three threads merge.
According to the judicial documents, Mr Noyer has come under scrutiny by the French judiciary for receiving a total of €80,000 from Lebanon's central bank for consultancy services in 2018 to develop a digital currency in the country through his company Cn Europa Conseil.
Mr Noyer also allegedly failed to declare to the French central bank the consultancy services he billed to Lebanon's central bank, in violation of French law.
Former governors are required to obtain authorisation from the Banque de France to engage in any professional activities for three years after their term ends, as they continue to receive financial compensation.
The judiciary suspects that these transfers might have been used as compensation in exchange for leniency regarding the undisclosed Banque du Liban Paris offices rented to Mr Salameh's partner.
The 66 Avenue des Champs-Elysees address had indeed raised significant suspicions under French law, as Lebanese authorities were legally bound to declare the Banque du Liban offices, a requirement for any banking institution operating within the country.
However, the Banque de Francetold both the judiciary and the media that these offices were not officially registered in France.
The French judge also noticed a slew of irregularities, on top of a potential conflict of interest. The irregularities include the significantly higher prices charged to Banque du Liban – 32 per cent more than another client – as well as the near-empty state of the offices discovered during a police raid in October 2021.
“It cannot be ruled out at this stage that these payments not declared to the Banque de France” were compensating the “lack of reporting of the anomalies” related to the payments for Banque du Liban's Parisian offices, the French judge wrote in a seizing order.
The payments made from the Lebanese central bank to Eciffice should have been easily detectable, as they were done through the Banque de France.
Former French central bank governor Christian Noyer. Getty Images
Mr Noyer provided undisclosed consultancy services to other clients. These included the Bank of Beirut, which is managed by Lebanese banker Salim Sfeir, and French banking group Credit Agricole.
The value of these undeclared consultancies was a total of €198,345, according to correspondence between the Banque de France and the French judiciary seen by The National.
The same document indicates that Mr Noyer reimbursed this amount to the Banque de Franceafter the investigation into Mr Salameh exposed the truth.
The preliminary investigation is continuing.
Neither Mr Noyer nor Mr Salameh responded to The National's repeated requests for comment.
Mr Salameh has consistently maintained his innocence, claiming that no public funds were deposited into his accounts.
'You have to ask Riad Salameh'
Since it began in 2021, the French investigation into Mr Salameh has swiftly gained momentum under the supervision of judge Aude Buresi, with the issuing of an arrest warrant for the governor, closely followed by an Interpol red notice.
The French judiciary has also put three people under formal investigation – his former aide, Marianne Hoayek, Ms Kosakova, and the Lebanese banker Marwan Kheireddine.
The 66 Avenue des Champs-Elysees property is only a small part of the probe, with €5 million allegedly embezzled.
But the scheme appears to be much broader: Mr Salameh is suspected of having embezzled $330 million of public funds through his brother's company Forry, an alleged shell company that is accused of siphoning off funds through a 0.38 per cent commission levied on transactions between Lebanese banks and the central bank.
The proceeds from these commissions enabled Mr Salameh and his inner circle to amass a significant real estate portfolio across Europe, including properties valued at a minimum of €14.3 million ($15 million) in upscale neighbourhoods of Paris.
The properties have been seized by the judiciary as part of a joint anti-money laundering scheme co-ordinated by Eurojust, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Co-operation.
The 66 Avenue des Champs-Elysees was leased by Riad Salameh's romantic partner to the central bank for €5 million from 2010 to 2021. Google Street View
The intricate flow of funds from the Lebanese central bank to Europe shows a complex scheme, involving “layering” operations often associated with “money laundering” practices, the French judge wrote.
In France, Ms Kosakova, whose connection with the governor and role in his dealings had remained a closely guarded secret for decades, even among those well-versed in the inner workings of the Banque du Liban, assumed a pivotal role in the Parisian purchases.
She described Mr Salameh to the French police, who quizzed her for two days in July last year, as the “love of her life”, and described a man with a “brilliant career in finance, before he became governor”, during her hearing with fraud squad detectives, which led her to be formally investigated, as first revealed by French investigative journal Mediapart in December.
Ms Kosakova said that the two met in 1999, while he was already married, two years after she completed her studies in economics in Ukraine. She said they would see each for other one week every month and still “call each other three to four times a day”, in the minutes of the hearing, seen by The National.
From 2007, the pair shared a residence in 65 Avenue Gorges Mandel, in the heart of Paris's upscale 16th arrondissement, another property suspected to have been bought with Lebanese public funds.
The same year Mr Salameh recognised as his own daughter Ms Kosakova's child E. Salameh, born in 2005.
From 2015, Ms Kosakova started to assume a central role in the two Luxembourg-based companies related to the purchases in Paris: SCI ZEL, a real estate investment company, and its parent company, BET SA, an asset management firm.
That year, she became the sole shareholder of BET SA as well the manager of SCI ZEL, previously managed by Mr Salameh's brother, who also transferred his 1 per cent stake in SCI ZEL to her.
BET SA, which owns the 99 per cent remaining, injected more than €17 million into SCI ZEL to finance the Parisian real estate acquisition.
These millions “come from Riad Salameh”, Ms Kosakova told the police.
The European judiciary managed to trace the origin of these funds back to Forry's account at Lebanon's central bank through the two Luxembourg-based companies, before reaching France.
Ms Kosakova said she never asked more about the funds' origin, which left the police perplexed, considering she had been bestowed with “a multimillion-euro fortune” without having to “pay a single penny”, they told her.
“You have to ask Riad Salameh” and " I don't know”, she repeatedly told French police, according to documents.
Ms Kosakova's account of the events did little to convince the investigators, especially considering her “knowledge in economics”, and the suspicious financial flows across countries without any apparent “economic rationale”- except perhaps to “conceal the origin of the funds or the real owner”.
She was put under formal investigation for criminal conspiracy, organised money laundering and aggravated tax fraud laundering.
Ms Kosakova did not respond to The National's request for comment.
Investors can tap into the gold price by purchasing physical jewellery, coins and even gold bars, but these need to be stored safely and possibly insured.
A cheaper and more straightforward way to benefit from gold price growth is to buy an exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Most advisers suggest sticking to “physical” ETFs. These hold actual gold bullion, bars and coins in a vault on investors’ behalf. Others do not hold gold but use derivatives to track the price instead, adding an extra layer of risk. The two biggest physical gold ETFs are SPDR Gold Trust and iShares Gold Trust.
Another way to invest in gold’s success is to buy gold mining stocks, but Mr Gravier says this brings added risks and can be more volatile. “They have a serious downside potential should the price consolidate.”
Mr Kyprianou says gold and gold miners are two different asset classes. “One is a commodity and the other is a company stock, which means they behave differently.”
Mining companies are a business, susceptible to other market forces, such as worker availability, health and safety, strikes, debt levels, and so on. “These have nothing to do with gold at all. It means that some companies will survive, others won’t.”
By contrast, when gold is mined, it just sits in a vault. “It doesn’t even rust, which means it retains its value,” Mr Kyprianou says.
You may already have exposure to gold miners in your portfolio, say, through an international ETF or actively managed mutual fund.
You could spread this risk with an actively managed fund that invests in a spread of gold miners, with the best known being BlackRock Gold & General. It is up an incredible 55 per cent over the past year, and 240 per cent over five years. As always, past performance is no guide to the future.
Red flags
Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
UAE SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Adel Al Hosani
Defenders: Bandar Al Ahbabi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Mohammed Barghash, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Hassan Al Mahrami, Yousef Jaber, Salem Rashid, Mohammed Al Attas, Alhassan Saleh
Midfielders: Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Abdullah Al Naqbi, Majed Hassan, Yahya Nader, Ahmed Barman, Abdullah Hamad, Khalfan Mubarak, Khalil Al Hammadi, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Harib Abdallah, Mohammed Jumah, Yahya Al Ghassani
Forwards: Fabio De Lima, Caio Canedo, Ali Saleh, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue, Zayed Al Ameri
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
Important questions to consider
1. Where on the plane does my pet travel?
There are different types of travel available for pets:
Manifest cargo
Excess luggage in the hold
Excess luggage in the cabin
Each option is safe. The feasibility of each option is based on the size and breed of your pet, the airline they are traveling on and country they are travelling to.
2. What is the difference between my pet traveling as manifest cargo or as excess luggage?
If traveling as manifest cargo, your pet is traveling in the front hold of the plane and can travel with or without you being on the same plane. The cost of your pets travel is based on volumetric weight, in other words, the size of their travel crate.
If traveling as excess luggage, your pet will be in the rear hold of the plane and must be traveling under the ticket of a human passenger. The cost of your pets travel is based on the actual (combined) weight of your pet in their crate.
3. What happens when my pet arrives in the country they are traveling to?
As soon as the flight arrives, your pet will be taken from the plane straight to the airport terminal.
If your pet is traveling as excess luggage, they will taken to the oversized luggage area in the arrival hall. Once you clear passport control, you will be able to collect them at the same time as your normal luggage. As you exit the airport via the ‘something to declare’ customs channel you will be asked to present your pets travel paperwork to the customs official and / or the vet on duty.
If your pet is traveling as manifest cargo, they will be taken to the Animal Reception Centre. There, their documentation will be reviewed by the staff of the ARC to ensure all is in order. At the same time, relevant customs formalities will be completed by staff based at the arriving airport.
4. How long does the travel paperwork and other travel preparations take?
This depends entirely on the location that your pet is traveling to. Your pet relocation compnay will provide you with an accurate timeline of how long the relevant preparations will take and at what point in the process the various steps must be taken.
In some cases they can get your pet ‘travel ready’ in a few days. In others it can be up to six months or more.
5. What vaccinations does my pet need to travel?
Regardless of where your pet is traveling, they will need certain vaccinations. The exact vaccinations they need are entirely dependent on the location they are traveling to. The one vaccination that is mandatory for every country your pet may travel to is a rabies vaccination.
Other vaccinations may also be necessary. These will be advised to you as relevant. In every situation, it is essential to keep your vaccinations current and to not miss a due date, even by one day. To do so could severely hinder your pets travel plans.
Friday, September 29
First practice: 7am - 8.30am
Second practice: 11am - 12.30pm
Saturday, September 30
Qualifying: 1pm - 2pm
Sunday, October 1
Race: 11am - 1pm
The bio
Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.
Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.
Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.
Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened. He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia. Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”. Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Ultra processed foods
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
Benjamin Macann, 32: involvement in cocaine smuggling gang.
Jack Mayle, 30: sold drugs from a phone line called the Flavour Quest.
Callum Halpin, 27: over the 2018 murder of a rival drug dealer.
Asim Naveed, 29: accused of being the leader of a gang that imported cocaine.
Calvin Parris, 32: accused of buying cocaine from Naveed and selling it on.
John James Jones, 31: allegedly stabbed two people causing serious injuries.
Callum Michael Allan, 23: alleged drug dealing and assaulting an emergency worker.
Dean Garforth, 29: part of a crime gang that sold drugs and guns.
Joshua Dillon Hendry, 30: accused of trafficking heroin and crack cocain.
Mark Francis Roberts, 28: grievous bodily harm after a bungled attempt to steal a £60,000 watch.
James ‘Jamie’ Stevenson, 56: for arson and over the seizure of a tonne of cocaine.
Nana Oppong, 41: shot a man eight times in a suspected gangland reprisal attack.
Essentials
The flights
Whether you trek after mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the Congo, the most convenient international airport is in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. There are direct flights from Dubai a couple of days a week with RwandAir. Otherwise, an indirect route is available via Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Flydubai flies to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via Entebbe in Uganda. Expect to pay from US$350 (Dh1,286) return, including taxes. The tours
Superb ape-watching tours that take in all three gorilla countries mentioned above are run by Natural World Safaris. In September, the company will be operating a unique Ugandan ape safari guided by well-known primatologist Ben Garrod.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local operator Kivu Travel can organise pretty much any kind of safari throughout the Virunga National Park and elsewhere in eastern Congo.
