The ‘Ponzi scheme’ behind Lebanon’s economic collapse
Behind the Money
Topher Forhecz
4.4 • 350 Ratings
🗓️ 13 December 2023
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For years, Riad Salameh was praised for his revolutionary financial policies as head of Lebanon’s central bank. But suddenly, the country plunged into an economic crisis. And Salameh left the central bank with a disgraced reputation and, investigators believe, a massive personal fortune. So what happened? The FT’s Middle East correspondent Raya Jalabi walks us through the storm of allegations Salameh faces, and the decisions he made that economists think sparked the entire crisis.
Clips from Associated Press, CNN, TRT World, DW News, Al Jazeera English, France 24, Asharq News, Annahar News
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For further reading:
‘The magician’: Riad Salameh and the plundering of Lebanon
‘It’s cool to have money again’: wealthy Lebanese party out the crisis
Long-awaited auditor report slams governance at Lebanon central bank
Lebanon’s ex-central bank chief hit with international sanctions for alleged graft
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On X, follow Raya Jalabi (@rayajalabi) and Saffeya Ahmed (@saffeya_ahmed)
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Am I missing anything? Is this the right decision? |
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| 0:21.1 | facts, not opinions. |
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| 0:26.6 | Visit clarity. |
| 0:27.7 | AI and take action today. It's June 2021. |
| 0:46.3 | 2021. A man named Riade Salame is in the customs line at an airport in France. He's the central bank governor of Lebanon and his private jet has just touched |
| 0:50.9 | down in Paris. |
| 0:58.0 | Customs agents approach Seleme and ask him how much cash he has on him. He says he's carrying 15,000 euros, |
| 1:01.0 | which is what he thinks is the limit that you're legally allowed to carry into France. |
| 1:06.0 | That's Riah Jahlibi. |
| 1:08.0 | She's the F.T's Middle East correspondent and she lives in Lebanon. |
| 1:11.2 | She tells me that border agents search Salé's bag and 15,000 euros is not |
| 1:16.2 | exactly all they find. They instead found it's 84,430 euros and 7,710 dollars exactly in cash. |
| 1:27.4 | And so the border agents obviously |
... |
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