¤Collapse of Bank al-Madina; Rustom Ghazaleh accused of siphoning $72m

In 2003 Bank al-Madina collapsed with a gap estimated at between 1.2 and 1.65 billion dollars. Its chairman Adnan Abou Ayyash accused Rustom Ghazaleh and his brothers, in a 2005 lawsuit, of withdrawing some 72 million dollars between 2000 and 2003, and reports said the bank's documents were sealed on the orders of Syrian intelligence; the Mehlis report of December 2005 pointed to threads leading to the bank and to Lebanese and Syrian officials. The executive director Rana Koleilat was jailed on fraud charges, and Ghazaleh was never convicted.