BEIRUT: A judge requested Monday that the Special Investigation Commission of Banque du Liban expand its investigation into bank transfers abroad that took place after Lebanese banks began enforcing informal capital controls in October of last year, a judicial source told The Daily Star.

Despite the informal capital controls, as much as $6 billion has been transferred abroad since Oct. 17, 2019, according to Alain Bifani, the former director-general of the Finance Ministry, as quoted Monday in The Financial Times.

It has been reported that these transfers were carried out when banks were closed to the public, raising serious questions as to whether there was complicity from within.

According to the judicial source, Judge Sabouh Suleiman asked the commission to reaffirm to the banks the importance of investigating these accounts, especially those holding in excess of $1 million.

The commission has previously refrained from providing the judiciary with the names of the owners of remittances abroad, on the grounds that the banks allege that none of the accounts in question are suspicious.

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