Two years after Monaco closed its corruption probe into Lebanese billionaire and former prime minister Najib Mikati, French prosecutors have launched a fresh investigation into his family’s assets and financial dealings on the Riviera and in Monaco…

According to reporting by the Financial Times (August 25, 2023), Monaco closed its three-year investigation into Lebanese billionaire and former prime minister Najib Mikati, his brother Taha and his son Maher after finding insufficient evidence of illicit enrichment or money laundering.

In a letter seen by the FT, Monaco’s deputy attorney-general confirmed that the case, which had centred on subsidised loan schemes and possible links to former Banque du Liban governor Riad Salameh, was formally dismissed, prompting Mikati to state that “spurious allegations and accompanying speculation were unfounded.”

Two years later, the affair has resurfaced on the other side of the Riviera. Last week France’s National Financial Prosecutor opened its own investigation into Mikati and several relatives on suspicion of corruption, money laundering and possession of “illegally acquired” assets. The complaint, filed by the French NGO Sherpa and the Collective of Victims of Fraudulent and Criminal Practices in Lebanon, targets assets held through offshore structures in France and abroad, including properties and investments in Paris, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the Côte d’Azur and Monaco.

For the Principality, the new French case is significant. Monaco has tightened anti-money-laundering rules in recent years under Moneyval scrutiny and has presented itself as a model of transparency after closing the Mikati file. Yet some of the assets and financial flows now under review in Paris allegedly pass through Monaco’s banking and real-estate sectors, meaning the outcome will be closely watched by regulators and the public alike.

Mikati maintains that his family’s wealth is entirely legitimate and transparent, but the French probe shows the controversy surrounding one of Lebanon’s richest men, and his Riviera footprint, is far from over.