A judicial investigation is opened in Luxembourg to shed light on the ill-gotten gains of Lebanese leaders

Paris, January 17, 2022 – A judicial investigation has been opened by the Luxembourg justice system following the complaint filed by the NGO Sherpa and the Collectif des Victimes des Pratiques Frauduleuses et Criminelles au Liban in December 2021. Given the terrible crisis in Lebanon and the investigations opened in France and Switzerland, the two associations expect the Luxembourg courts to identify and prosecute those responsible for the financial offences denounced.

The complaints filed in Luxembourg and in France focuse on the suspicious conditions under which Lebanese officials have acquired huge assets over the past few years, using offshore arrangements.

The ultimate objective of these procedures, which follow the procedures relating to ill-gotten gains initiated in France, and in particular the first complaint filed by Sherpa in 2007, is the restitution assets to the looted Lebanese population.

The two associations hope that the investigations will make it possible to highlight the offence of money laundering and the responsibility of intermediaries who participated in the misappropriation of assets. It will also highlight the systemic use of financial arrangements by corrupt political leaders to conceal the origin and destination of their funds.

Sherpa and the Collectif are therefore expecting the Luxembourg and France justice system to establish the responsibilities of the different actors who may be involved in the reported facts, and whose actions are directly linked to the humanitarian disaster that the Lebanese people are currently experiencing.