Société Générale de Banque au Liban, a major lender in the Middle East, is facing a civil lawsuit in the U.S. for refusing to cash a check owed to a Lebanese-American businessman.

In a legal complaint, Joseph Zoghaib claims the institution, known as SGBL, issued checks it “knew could not be honored” after the collapse of Lebanon’s financial system in 2019. The checks were drawn on accounts at Banque du Liban (BDL), the country’s central bank, which is also named in the complaint.

Neither SGBL nor BDL responded to requests for comment. Last month, SGBL filed a motion to extend the deadline to respond to the complaint to January 12. 

Most bank customers in Lebanon were prevented from withdrawing or transferring their money in U.S. dollars in late 2019, when a foreign currency shortage caused the financial system to unravel. Many watched their savings evaporate as the Lebanese pound — pegged to the U.S. dollar for over two decades — shed more than 80 percent of its street value within months. 

Banks closed for two weeks starting on October 17, 2019, then implemented a series of measures that amounted to informal capital controls. Banks blocked ordinary depositors from accessing dollar-denominated savings, or moving money out of the country.

The issue has prompted several lawsuits against various Lebanese banks from customers who were denied access to their funds. For example, the law firm Fountain Court Chambers won a suit against a Lebanese bank in 2022, and retrieved funds on behalf of a client who was a U.K. national.

In his civil complaint, filed last January, Zoghaib said a cashier’s check for $336,000 was issued against his own account in 2021, so that he could retrieve the funds later. However, the check “was dishonored upon presentation in Miami, Florida,” in 2024.

“This is an issue that unites us all, transcending everything — sects, politics, and social classes. Whether we have $5, $5 million or $50 million, we’re all in the same boat,” Zoghaib told Daraj, OCCRP’s member center in Lebanon.

SGBL is majority-owned by Antoun Sehnaoui, who has filed legal complaints against Daraj following its coverage of his bank’s relationship with Riad Salame, the former Lebanon central bank governor. Daraj has been summoned by Lebanon’s Cybercrime Bureau, which is investigating its reporting about SGBL’s business with Salame. However, Daraj has argued that the cases should rather go to the Publications Court, which handles defamation.

Salame was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2023 for allegedly abusing his position at BDL to enrich himself and his associates by funneling hundreds of millions of dollars through layered shell companies to invest in European real estate.

In his suit, Zoghaib claims that SGBL was “colluding with BDL, which subsequently refused to clear the check, citing prohibitions from foreign regulators.”

Zoghaib alleges that SGBL fraudulently induced him to maintain his U.S.-currency deposits by falsely promising they would be accessible, “including the ability to transfer USD outside of Lebanon.” He also claims that the bank inaccurately depicted the stability of its financial conditions to depositors.

“SGBL failed to disclose to Plaintiff its precarious financial condition and the overall insolvency of the Lebanese banking system,” according to the complaint.

The complaint, filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, is headed to the discovery phase, which is an exchange of information between the parties . But the case may not go to trial next year because the parties agreed on November 26 to court-monitored mediation.

Maria Sharapova