A new financial scandal shakes the banking sector: a lawsuit against Nader Hariri and its bank

“Libyan Deepite”

At a time when Lebanon tries to get out of its deepest financial and monetary crises, and fights to restore the minimum confidence of depositors in the banking sector, a new financial scandal explodes this time, the businessman Nader Hariri, who faces a lawsuit before the Financial Public Prosecution that includes serious accusations of fraudulent bankruptcy, fraud, embezzlement and abuse of trust, along with direct involvement in the “National Accreditation Bank” The case, the bank that Hariri has a large part of.

The issue is not a transient legal detail, but rather a blatant model on how to manipulate investment contracts, and to employ the private banks network to detain and dispose of the funds of others in contradiction to the agreements, which threatens to strike the remaining confidence that is originally eroded between depositors and banks, and requires an urgent intervention from the governor of the Bank of Lebanon and the Banking Association, before these precedents turn into a dangerous pattern in a financial environment Fragile.

According to the information of “Libanon Debayette”, Nader Hariri owned a group of real estate in the Bashoura – Beirut area, and it was offered for sale to a group of businessmen who established an investment fund with the participation of two people and two companies, and the deal took place under an agreement that allows Hariri to recover the ownership after a year and a half from the date of the sale.

However, Al -Hariri returned after about a year and two months, demanding the recovery of real estate for the benefit of the “National Accreditation” bank, provided that the bank will sell it later to the Bank of Lebanon, then deposit the sale revenues in the accounts of the four partners.

In the period between selling real estate to the bank and depositing its price in the accounts of the four partners within the “national accreditation”, a new agreement was made at the request of Nader Hariri, according to which the partners agreed to keep the money in their accounts within the bank, and they signed an agreement in which Hariri pledged to pay the amount personally to the following form: 10% as soon as the money enters the accounts, and the rest in two payments within three months, provided that the four partners transfer the amounts To Nader Hariri account when receiving each batch. The agreement also included waiving the right to restore real estate in favor of Nader Hariri, and most importantly, it explicitly stipulated that in the event of a violation of the payment of installments on their dates, the four partners become a solution to their commitment to not behave in their deposits.

However, Nader Al -Hariri wore the agreement, and repeatedly prolonged, citing exceptional circumstances, and refused to pay the first batch, which prompted one of the partners to go to the bank and withdraw the amount of 200 thousand dollars from his account, in a move that was consistently adopted by the rights of depositors on funds.

The most dangerous of this is that the bank, in collusion with Hariri, lured investors with the person of his legal advisor to sign books that acknowledged that Nader Hariri is the owner of the “economic right” to real estate as they abdicated in his favor the right to recover real estate, and at the pretext of justifying financial transfers in line with the requirements of bank compliance. Then this document was later used as an excuse to detain funds within the “national accreditation”, on the pretext that the economic right moved to Nader Hariri, and therefore the owners of accounts are no longer entitled to act.

When the partners went to withdraw their money after Hariri’s breach of his obligations, they were met with the bank’s refusal, which justified the situation with the “liquidity crisis”, then he returned to confirm that Nader Hariri has already become the owner of the economic right over these accounts. It is noteworthy that the bank’s legal advisor had signed all the papers and agreements between the bank and investors on the one hand, and between Nader Hariri and investors on the other hand, which means that it and the bank were fully familiar with all aspects of the process, which proves their direct involvement. Thus, the bank has turned into an actual partner in freezing the “Fresh” funds related to a legitimate deposit, for reasons that are legally and morally rejected.

The file is now in the custody of the Financial Public Prosecution, which set a hearing next Tuesday for both the bank’s executive director and Nader Hariri himself, in a lawsuit that involves the charges of fraudulent bankruptcy, honesty, embezzlement, and fraud against Nader Hariri and the bank.

As “Libyan Deepite” places these facts before public opinion and the concerned authorities, it beats the alarm regarding the selective use of banking influence to reserve the money of depositors and overcome commercial and banking laws, and calls for explicitly:

• The ruler of the Bank of Lebanon to immediate intervention and direct the supervisory investigation into the behavior of the “National Accreditation” bank;

• The Association of Banks to issuing a clear and explicit position on these practices that threaten the overall monetary and credit stability in the country.

What is happening is not just a commercial dispute, but rather an issue that affects the entire financial system, and opens the door to a dangerous precedent that may be used later to justify the detention of money deposited with artificial “economic” arguments, which restores steps back in the path of lost confidence.

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