EU states freeze $130 million worth of Lebanese assets

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — A European Union agency says authorities in three European countries have frozen more than $130 million in assets linked to an investigation into money laundering in Lebanon. The measures taken by officials in France, Germany and Luxembourg come as Lebanon grapples with a devastating economic crisis and coincide with domestic and European investigations of its longtime central bank governor, Riad Salameh. The crisis, which started in October 2019, is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement and has continued with no serious steps by the country’s political class to work for a solution. It was not immediately clear if the EU case is linked to the investigation of Salameh.