Lebanese judge issues travel bans for five bank chiefs

A Lebanese judge has imposed travel bans on the heads of the country's five largest banks over suspicions related to a possible transfer of billions of dollars abroad during the nation's economic meltdown, local media reported.

The decision by Ghada Aoun, an investigating judge for the Mount Lebanon district, involved the heads of the Bank of Beirut, Bank Audi, Societe Generale (SGBL), BLOM Bank, and Bankmed, the state-run NNA reported late on Thursday.

NNA did not provide further details over the reasons behind the ban. Local media reports said the move was precautionary as auditors look into transfers by the banks worth $8 billion.

Judge Aoun was investigating "the case of the transfer by Banque du Liban of $8bn to seven other banks to pay to depositors outside Lebanon, but it later emerged that the banks had paid no more than $1bn and kept the remaining $7bn", Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported.

Lebanese banks have imposed informal capital controls since the economic crisis began in October 2019 after decades of corruption and mismanagement by the country's political class.

Since then, people have had no full access to their savings and those who withdraw cash from their US dollar accounts get an exchange rate that is much less than that of the black market.

In January, Judge Aoun imposed a travel ban on Lebanon’s central bank governor after a corruption lawsuit accused him of embezzlement and dereliction of duty during the crisis.

Also on Thursday, authorities raised the price of bread, the country's main staple, by 30 percent following a recent move by the central bank to end subsidies for sugar and yeast.

There are mounting concerns that Russia's invasion of Ukraine will affect wheat imports in Lebanon, heavily reliant on Ukrainian and Russian wheat.