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On Thursday, the Public Finance Ministry ordered the arrest of a senior official at the Central Bank of Lebanon, according to the National Information Agency, as part of an investigation into exchange rate manipulation in a country experiencing an economic crisis and a decrease in the value of your national currency.
The economic collapse in Lebanon coincides with the decrease in the value of the lira, the exchange rate of which exceeded the threshold of four thousand against the dollar, while the official price is still set at 1507 pounds.
On Thursday, the National Media Agency reported that “the Attorney General for Finance, Judge Ali Ibrahim, ordered the arrest of the director of monetary operations at the Bank of Lebanon, Mazen Hamdan, in the file manipulating the exchange rate of the dollar” .
A security source confirmed that security forces arrested Hamdan on Thursday and accompanied him to his office to bring certain documents.
“Mazen Hamdan is currently under investigation. He is being arrested at the judicial detachment in the southern suburbs of Beirut,” the source said. “Today he went with a security patrol to his office at the Banque du Liban to take documents,” he added.
Lebanese security forces arrested the ATM captain two weeks ago after launching a security campaign against workers in the parallel market, in the context of the rapid collapse of the lira’s exchange rate against the US dollar.
Since the summer, it has appeared in Lebanon for the first time in parallel market contracts.
Faced with the accelerated collapse, the Bank of Lebanon requested late last month that ATMs not exceed the sale price of the dollar by 3,200 pounds. Since then, however, the lira has seen an unprecedented decline in its value against the US dollar on the black market.
Since September, banks have imposed strict procedures on cash operations and the withdrawal of funds. The outbreak of the new Corona virus exacerbated the crisis after banks were unable to fully provide their customers with the dollar.
The Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, was seen as the godfather of the stability of the lira for decades in the post-Civil War period, but many political forces consider him a “godfather” of the lending policy applied by successive governments.
On Thursday, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab called for continued investigations into speculation on the Lebanese pound, which is causing the appreciation of the US dollar exchange rate. He emphasized that “the Lebanese people have a right to know the reason for the high price of the dollar and who is manipulating the national currency.”
He also called for the investigation to end, “to reveal all documents and all names of those involved.”
On Wednesday, the Lebanese government officially began its first trading session with the International Monetary Fund, in a move that it hoped to receive urgent financial support to exit the cycle of accelerated economic collapse.
Earlier this month, the government requested official IMF assistance, the day after it approved a reform plan in which it hopes to garner external support of more than $ 20 billion.
In a statement, the Finance Ministry said: “The Lebanese government has today started formal negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to discuss the financial recovery plan that the government has implemented” through the video service.
