He Held Up a Bank to Get His Own Money

By the time Walid al-Hajjar stormed his financial institution armed with a jug of gasoline, 4 lighters and a willingness to set himself on hearth, his spouse’s bone most cancers was too far gone for him to save lots of her.

But he needed to make her extra snug within the time remaining — handled with painkillers in a hospital fairly than writhing in agony at house, he recalled. And the household had already gathered tens of 1000’s of {dollars} of debt from pals and kinfolk that wanted to be repaid.

Mr. al-Hajjar, 48, had the cash to pay for his spouse’s remedy. But like so many different Lebanese, his life financial savings was being held hostage in his checking account: The central financial institution has not allowed depositors to withdraw various hundred {dollars} a month since a monetary collapse in 2019.

So, like different determined Lebanese earlier than him — a few of them equally compelled by the necessity for medical remedy — Mr. al-Hajjar went to his financial institution in November, threatening to burn it down except it gave him among the $250,000 he had in his account. More than 12 hours later, he left with $25,000 in stacks of money.

“If you don’t go in and threaten to hurt them, they won’t give you anything,” he stated months later.

Virtually nobody in Lebanon has been spared from the two-pronged monetary collapse of each the banking system and the native forex, the lira, which has misplaced 98 p.c of its worth since 2019. But a lot of the burden has fallen on depositors who in a single day misplaced entry to cash they’d spent a lifetime saving.

The phenomenon of Lebanese depositors resorting to power to demand their very own cash has earned them the moniker “the world’s most honorable bank robbers.”

Before the monetary collapse, Lebanon’s banking sector was admired and its outgoing central financial institution governor, Riad Salameh, hailed as a monetary wizard for overseeing a system that maintained a secure forex even via wars. The nation provided excessive rates of interest that attracted billions in deposits in Lebanese banks.

At the identical time, the lira was pegged to the greenback for greater than 20 years, and the nation used each currencies interchangeably. Many, just like the al-Hajjars, had Lebanese financial institution accounts denominated in {dollars}.

The central financial institution’s push to maintain the lira pegged to the greenback required Lebanese banks to keep up giant greenback reserves. To maintain {dollars} coming in, the banks provided beneficiant rates of interest to depositors and paid that curiosity with newly deposited cash. After the monetary collapse, the World Bank known as this method a Ponzi scheme.

Now, whereas the whole deposits in Lebanese banks quantity to some $92 billion, the banks have, at most, $20 billion readily available, the deputy prime minister, Saadeh al-Shami, advised The New York Times this month.

“Every depositor deserves the last penny, but numbers do not lie,” he stated. “We have a gap in the financial sector, close to $72 billion,” he added. “Where can we get the money from? We can’t print dollars.”

For many Lebanese, officers like Mr. Salameh, the central financial institution governor, characterize a ruling class that has pushed the nation into monetary disaster whereas enriching themselves and doing little to resolve the disaster.

Mr. Salameh was the architect of Lebanese financial coverage for the previous three many years, main as much as the monetary collapse. As he prepares to go away his put up on the finish of this month — nonetheless defending his insurance policies and tenure — financial institution depositors like Mr. al-Hajjar are not any nearer to having access to their financial savings, whereas inflation and poverty grip the nation.

Now, Mr. Salameh is below investigation in Lebanon and has been charged with cash laundering and different monetary crimes by France and Germany. Both nations have issued worldwide arrest warrants for him. Mr. Salameh says he’s a scapegoat for the nation’s financial woes.

In a TV interview final month, he insisted that financial institution depositors would get their a refund. Despite these assurances, nonetheless, the central financial institution and authorities haven’t taken the steps wanted to make sure this.

A $3 billion International Monetary Fund mortgage, agreed to greater than a yr in the past, stays in limbo as a result of the federal government has not made the financial and political modifications required to get the cash.

A separate plan to make sure the return of deposits as much as $100,000 and to arrange a restoration fund for bigger deposits can be no nearer to authorities approval, stated Mr. al-Shami, the deputy prime minister.

And Lebanon’s authorities — lengthy riddled with corruption and dysfunction — has been with no president since September.

For Mr. al-Hajjar, the laborious instances got here after three many years by which he prospered in Lebanon’s sizzling banking and actual property markets. He purchased and offered livestock, opened and offered three butcher outlets and flipped each land and actual property. He put his cash in Credit Libanais financial institution, and with beneficiant curiosity, it grew into a cushty nest egg.

“We saved the money so I could control my life,” he stated. “We thought we could relax.”

Instead, he and his kids stated, his spouse spent her final months in a lot ache that the slightest contact harm.

Two days after Mr. al-Hajjar threatened to burn down the financial institution close to his hometown in Marj Ali, his father died of kidney most cancers. Forty days after that, his spouse, Ola, handed away at 41.

He stated he had gone to his financial institution thrice with payments from numerous hospitals, pleading for entry to his cash. On his fourth go to, he went with a warning. The fifth time, he got here with the gasoline and lighters.

More than seven months have handed since that day, and Mr. al-Hajjar is now working lengthy hours at his brother-in-law’s butcher store and elevating his three kids alone. His youngest, Kareem, 12, works alongside him in the course of the summer season, his tiny body wielding a cleaver.

He stated he nonetheless owes household and pals $22,000.

“She is at rest in the ground and I am stuck with this work,” he stated final month.

The household is ready to cowl day by day bills, supported by investments he had saved out of the financial institution, together with some residences it owns and rents. But many life plans are out of attain, and the household worries about one other medical emergency or unexpected expense.

Most days, his oldest son, Ahmad, 22, visits the graves of his mom and grandfather. He crouches subsequent to the top of her grave and speaks to her in hushed tones, updating her about life and his research.

“They ruined our lives,” he stated as he drove away from the cemetery one current day. “They’re robbing us, and the government is protecting them.”

Mr. al-Hajjar says that he tells his kids by no means to place their cash in banks.

Across Lebanon, depositors’ anger is mirrored within the graffiti and harm to banks, which have grow to be steel fortresses.

Most weeks, members of a company known as the Depositors Outcry Association protest outdoors banks within the capital, Beirut. Sometimes, they yell and spray paint their frustration on the partitions. Other instances, they mild tires on hearth and smash glass.

At a current protest outdoors the central financial institution, one man scrawled on a cement barrier in crimson paint: “The crook Riad.”

Mr. al-Hajjar recalled how, because the most cancers unfold all through his spouse’s physique, she ready for a future she wouldn’t see. She purchased new sofas for the household’s front room, added ornamental touches to the entrance of their constructing and deliberate to beautify a small backyard outdoors, all for when her kids obtained married.

Now, in that backyard, Mr. al-Hajjar grows sufficient greens to maintain them and retains the goats and cows for the butcher store. After feeding them on a current day, he returned to the balcony of his house — within the mountains southeast of Beirut — overlooking a lush valley and, on a transparent day, the Mediterranean Sea.

As he sat together with his daughter, they adopted updates of an ongoing financial institution holdup — there have been greater than 20 since 2019. Like Mr. al-Hajjar, a person had taken a jug of gasoline right into a financial institution, demanding his cash. The following week, one other man armed with a grenade went to the identical financial institution Mr. al-Hajjar had held up and demanded his cash.

Mr. al-Hajjar, who was jailed for 2 days, stated he usually thought of holding up his financial institution once more. His daughter, Claire, 19, appeared stunned at first. But then she thought of it for a number of seconds.

“He’s not doing anything wrong,” she stated. “He’s taking what is his right.”

Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.