The former chairman of Credit Bank Lebanon was interviewed by prosecutors investigating transfers exceeding $330 million linked to Riad Salameh's brother Raji Salameh.
Joseph Tarbieh, longtime chairman of Credit Bank Lebanon, has emerged as a figure in the investigation into financial flows connected to Raji Salameh, the brother of former central bank governor Riad Salameh. The inquiry centers on whether judicial authorities have obtained a complete picture of money movement through Raji Salameh's bank accounts.
In late 2020, Lebanon received judicial assistance from Swiss authorities regarding an investigation into transfers exceeding $330 million linked to Forry, a company owned by Raji Salameh. According to investigation data, approximately $207 million of those funds returned to Raji Salameh's accounts across five Lebanese banks, including Credit Bank Lebanon.
The role of banks became fundamental to the investigation. The funds did not move in a vacuum; they entered specific bank accounts and became, in principle, documented in the records of the institutions that received them. These transactions left trails that could be traced through banking systems.
In autumn 2021, former prosecutor general Jean Tannous requested account statements for Raji Salameh from several banks, including Credit Bank Lebanon, as part of an investigation into suspected illicit enrichment. Tarbieh attended a meeting at Tannous's office during the inquiry.
During that meeting, according to investigation data obtained by Beirut Time, Tarbieh stated he did not know Raji Salameh personally and that all he knew about him was that he spent considerable time at the Portemilio resort in Kaslik. The statement appeared marginal at first but gained significance when considered alongside the volume of funds flowing through Raji Salameh's accounts at the bank Tarbieh chaired.
The investigation faced resistance from the banks involved, which argued that the central bank's special investigation committee, then headed by Riad Salameh himself, was the sole competent authority to lift banking secrecy and obtain account statements. This position shifted responsibility away from the judiciary toward an institution controlled by the subject's brother.
By late 2021 and early 2022, Tarbieh informed the prosecutor general's office that he had transferred the data concerning Raji Salameh's accounts to that committee. This handoff raised a critical institutional question: the judiciary was seeking bank data about Raji Salameh while the entity receiving the information remained under the authority of Riad Salameh himself.
The conflict of interest was stark. In 2021, Riad Salameh was still central bank governor. Today he faces multiple investigations and charges in Lebanon and abroad. This year, current central bank governor Karim Souaid announced legal steps to recover funds allegedly drained from the central bank, implicating his predecessor.
Riad Salameh did not own the banks through which the money passed, nor did he personally open customer accounts or execute transfers. These operations necessarily moved through the banking system and left behind records, accounts, and financial trails. Banks and their officers would have documented the transactions.
The question now emerging is whether Tarbieh faces judicial consequences comparable to those confronting Riad Salameh. As chairman of an institution that processed substantial sums connected to the investigation, Tarbieh's role and knowledge remain points of scrutiny. The banking system's compliance function in facilitating these flows, and what executives knew, forms part of the broader accountability being examined.
The investigation reveals structural weaknesses in how Lebanon's banking sector handles scrutiny of high-value transactions. When judicial authorities sought information, they encountered institutional barriers and competing claims of authority that obscured rather than clarified the money's path. Whether those barriers were administrative or deliberate remains part of what prosecutors must determine.
Going forward, the investigation depends on whether the central bank's investigation committee made its findings public and what those findings contained. The current central bank governor's decision to pursue legal action against his predecessor suggests the previous inquiry may have been incomplete or that new evidence has emerged. The resolution will likely turn on establishing what Tarbieh and other bank executives knew about the transactions occurring in their institutions.
