"The Lebanese banks, the majority of them, have taken over the deposits of their customers and then against the law lent these deposits to the government and to the central bank, which spent it on their international commitments and on salaries," Hasan Bazy, one of the lawyers who brought the case forward, told Reuters, adding that more complaints would be forthcoming. Lenders have denied any wrongdoing and have repeatedly said that customers' deposits are safe. The complaint accuses local banks, which have frozen customers out of their deposits and blocked them from transferring cash abroad since the crisis erupted in late 2019, of crimes including negligence and fraud. But as Lebanon's economic meltdown gathered pace and dollar remittaces dried up, the financial system was starved of funding. Lebanon's banks were once among the world's more profitable lenders, funnelling funds from a scattered diaspora into state coffers in return for high interest rates. The asset freezes, listed in a judicial document seen by Reuters, are part of a legal complaint lodged by lawyers belonging to a civil society group on behalf of Lebanese depositors. BEIRUT, May 6 (Reuters) - A Lebanese judge has ordered a protective freeze of some properties and company stakes of 14 individuals with links to some of Lebanon's biggest banks, a move the lenders said could further isolate them from international financial networks.
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