Financial Prosecutor Sues 18 Money Changers for Violating Law

Financial Prosecutor Ali Ibrahim on Tuesday filed lawsuits against 18 money exchange shops on charges of violating the law regulating the sector and “harming the state’s financial standing.”

“He referred the files to the investigative judges of the governorates,” the National News Agency said.

In January, money changers had agreed Tuesday to cap the dollar exchange rate at 2,000 pounds. It later turned out that the cap was for the maximum rate they would offer those seeking to sell their dollars and not the opposite. The rate at which they would sell the dollar meanwhile continued to rise and reportedly hit the LBP 2,600 mark in recent days.

The Lebanese pound is officially pegged to the greenback at a rate of 1,500 to the dollar but the country's sharp economic downturn has sent the currency into a tailspin in foreign exchange offices.

The Lebanese Money Changers Association had announced in January that it had agreed with the central bank on "an exchange rate for the U.S. dollar capped at 2,000 Lebanese pounds."

The cap in the parallel market of foreign exchange offices has however created a fully illegal black market with higher rates.

Debt-ridden Lebanon faces its most serious economic crisis since the end of its 1975-1990 civil war.