Anonymous Letter Exposes Currency Trafficking Operations to Lebanon

The trial of a businessman and owner of a company for textile industries, accompanied by his partner, before Dar Bida Misdemeanour Court, on Monday morning, revealed serious facts regarding an attempt to smuggle large sums of money in hard currency to foreign countries by suspicious methods, which took place under the cover of import operations carried out by a fake company, where the money was transferred later to invest in Lebanon and to buy lands and real estate there.

The two defendants were charged with misdemeanours of violating customs legislation related to the regulation of exchange and capital movement to and from abroad, and forgery in commercial documents, after following them up in the case file based on information received by the Algerian security authorities through an anonymous letter that became clear after a while that it was signed by a Lebanese national residing in Algeria, named Antoine Abou Jaoude who revealed in it that 83 suspicious import deals were concluded by a fake company run by the two owners of a factory for textile industries.

The company carried out bank localization operations through the Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development to transfer huge sums abroad without any goods that were brought in the framework of import. The security services opened extensive investigations, as the two defendants were prosecuted in the file that was referred to justice, along with “Badr” Bank as a legal person, on the charge of not notifying the Central Bank, due to the trafficking of foreign exchange currency and damaging the public treasury due to these suspicious operations.

The two defendants stated, during their trial, on Monday, that the Lebanese national had a dispute with them due to commercial transactions to provide them with raw materials for the factory they own and handed them bank checks without balance in exchange for a sum of money they had borrowed and gave them title deeds to real estate in common in his country as a guarantee before paying the estimated amount of $80,000.

The two defendants explained that they had fallen victim to fraud after it became clear that Lebanese law prevents foreign nationals from acquiring any type of real estate, which prompted the man, according to their statements, to report them to the security services in retaliation for the disputes that erupted between them later. On the other hand, the public treasury was established as a civil party to the file, while the representative of the public right requested the imposition of a penalty of 3 years in prison, effective against the accused.