Who is Lebanon's tainted Riad Salameh? | The West Asia Post

this week and exactly on August 4th Lebanon marks the third year since the Beirut Port explosion one of the biggest explosions ever on earth and still till days no one was held accountable thousands of people lost their homes hundreds lost their lives also a financial crisis has been crippling Lebanon and vacancy in the most political highest ranked position the presidency of these three problems have been crippling the country added to that now is that the country is left without a central bank Governor Riyad Salem a 73 year old Governor has left his 30 years of position in this job some people celebrated him while many Lebanese and seven other countries hold him accountable for the biggest financial crisis in Lebanon in the next story we tell you all these details take a look this is Riyadh saleni the face behind the Lebanese economic collapse the architect of the doomed currency Peg the 73 year old central bank chief stepped down this Monday he left the top office after 30 years on the job his gratuity ongoing probes in at least seven countries two International arrest warrants and no successor inside salemi was appointed the governor of the bank dudibon in 1993. in his initial years the central bank chief was hailed for stabilizing a battered economy he once successfully brought lebanon's Warhead economy out of crisis in his term he saw 12 presidents and up until a few years salemi himself was seen as a viable presidential candidate but Faith had other things in mind was first appointed as governor of the Central Bank in the year 1993. back then he was credited for lifting the country's economy after Lebanon Civil War but today salemi alongside the political class are accused of big Financial mismanagement one that took depositors money to pay existing creditors and it is often called a Ponzi scheme once faded as a financial wizard former central bank chief riyat saleemi last walked out of office this Monday he was surrounded by a group of his followers who celebrated him with traditional music and dancing the scenes on the streets showed the Deep divisions in Lebanese political Society it reflects loyalty to leadership which has been in power since the end of the country's Civil War Salem is Legacy was nowhere close to what happened on the streets it is in tatters when you Google Salem the top results will be linked to corruption allegations and financial mismanagement how he dragged Lebanon to one of History's worst Financial crises neither is accolades nor his wins lebanon's Current financial crisis began in 2019 when the value of the Lebanese found plummeted and inflation soaring more than 80 percent of the population is living in poverty Bank withdrawals of heart currency are limited what this means is that people are blocked from accessing their own money in recent times there have been several cases of people holding up Banks just to get their hands on their own money the country's foreign reserves have dipped below 10 billion dollars and to blame our salemi and his Central Bank team salemi in 2016 offered a plan to boost the country's economy post-war he attracted investors especially from the Lebanese diaspora all over with very high interest rates in the end he combined U.S dollar deposits with local currency deposits and this according to the World Bank led into digging into the country's Reserves [Music] then comes the dollar Peg a devil of salami's own making Lebanon has a fixed exchange rate against the dollar and yet the country runs mostly on black market system with varying rates Lebanon remains largely dollarized due to the almost 100 percent devaluation of the lira and if the troubles simmering home were not enough Salem's image was further tarnished as one European country after another began investigating whether he abused his power to embezzle public money the former Chief denies all charges and just like the Lebanese presidency the central bank is also bereft of a leader for now Salem's Deputy is serving as the interim chair we are facing Crossroads either to keep the old policies which is not an option and we have seen the results the Lebanese Central bank's capabilities are limited if we keep the old policies of funding and amounts of money in the central bank reserve will come to an end then this means we have to switch to another policy which is entirely stopping funding the government by law the chief of the BDL has to be a Maronite Christian mansuri is a Shia Muslim so technically he cannot take over as for salaami's successor the interim government has not been able to name one time is running out observers think an IMF bailout is the last option for Lebanon but for that Beirut needs to overcome its political crises and elect someone to lead the country out of the storm