Governor Riad Salameh Gets An Earful In Washington

Now Lebanon:

Few weeks after the US accused a Lebanese bank of money laundering, Salameh, who is currently in Washington, said that the recent accusations “only addressed the activities of the bank and not the entire banking sector in Lebanon.” The NNA said that Salameh met with a series of officials, including Stuart Levey, the first Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence within the US Department of the Treasury.

My guess is that Washington wasn’t happy with Mr. Salameh’s vigorous defense of the Lebanese Canadian Bank and forced him to reconsider his support. Notice in Mr. Salameh’s statement an admission of the LCB’s suspect activities, which is for all intents and purposes a U-turn in the governor’s position.