Foreign Transfers Between 2015 and 2020: Is the Problem the Money or Its Source?
Lebanon's transfer probe has shifted from whether money could legally leave the country to whether its source, beneficiaries, and privileges were improper.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
As judicial probes into Mektf and related banking figures resume, the article argues the core issue is not the act of transferring funds abroad between 2015 and 2020, but whether the money's source, the beneficiaries, or special access made some transfers problematic.
The article says the big question is not just whether money left Lebanon, but whether some people got to move it in unfair ways. It is like checking not only who took cookies from the jar, but whether some people were given a secret ladder while others were not.
Analysis
What the article says
The piece says Lebanon's foreign-transfer file is back in the spotlight as judicial investigations resume in the case involving Mektf Exchange and related figures. The debate is not simply about whether money was sent abroad, but about where the funds came from, who benefited, and whether some transfers were enabled by influence or exceptional access.
Why the legal argument is complicated
The article stresses that the period from 2015 to 2020 came before any capital control law was adopted, so transfers abroad were, in principle, legal at the time. That is why some people ask: if the money was already in an account and the owner was legally allowed to move it, what exactly was the violation?
But the article says prosecutors and European investigators are looking at the broader context. That includes the source of the funds, the circumstances around the transfers, and whether some operations were tied to mechanisms that drained foreign-currency liquidity and worsened pressure on the Lebanese pound.
The role of Mektf and the wider probes
According to the article, Mektf Exchange was not the decision-maker; it acted as the intermediary carrying out the transfer requests of account holders. The legal focus, therefore, is less on the transfer act itself and more on whether certain clients used privileged channels or information unavailable to ordinary depositors.
The story also links this file to investigations involving former central bank governor Riad Salameh, including matters connected to Forry and Optimum Invest, with cases reported in Lebanon, France, Germany, and Luxembourg. It notes that the ongoing forensic audit by Alvarez & Marsal runs from 1991 to 2023 and covers a wider set of central bank operations, including support programs and other spending.
What triggered the renewed attention
The article points to Central Bank Circular 154, issued in August 2020, as an official sign of the scale of money that left Lebanon before the crisis. It required banks to contact clients who had transferred more than $500,000 abroad since July 2017 and asked them to redeposit part of those sums under frozen-account conditions.
Key points
- The article says the transfer file is being revisited through renewed judicial investigations into Mektf Exchange.
- It argues the main issue is not the transfer itself, but the source of the money and whether some clients had special access.
- Transfers abroad between 2015 and 2020 were legal in principle because Lebanon had no capital controls yet.
- The story links the case to wider probes involving former central bank governor Riad Salameh and related companies.
- Central Bank Circular 154 is presented as evidence of how much money left Lebanon before the crisis.
If the investigations establish clear facts, they could help separate lawful transfers from abusive ones and bring more clarity to a highly contested file. That could strengthen accountability and give the forensic audit and court process more credibility.
If the inquiries stay stuck on legal technicalities, the case may deepen public frustration without producing clear responsibility. The broader risk is that the dispute over transfers, privileges, and source of funds could remain unresolved while confidence in Lebanon's banking system keeps eroding.
