Three arrested for stealing $1mln from Lebanese house

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Three people have been arrested in Lebanon -- the country whose banking crisis has forced people to store cash at home -- after stealing over $1 million from a private residence, the police said.

A man, his wife, and a relative, who are all Syrians, were arrested on November 11, a week after allegedly making off with the found treasure that had been left in a house's safe in Mount Lebanon, a police statement said.

The money had been recovered, only missing around $70,000, which one of the detainees said had been spent on a wedding, a car, and furniture, according to the statement.  

The World Bank warned that Lebanon was enduring an economic depression that might rank among the top 10 worst economic crises in the world since the mid-nineteenth century. It has caused people in the country to hide a total of around $10 billion in their houses, according to central bank governor Riad Salameh.

Capital control laws were never formalized by Beirut, but the country's judicial system has been too lenient on banks, not ruling on depositors' attempts to access savings via litigation against banks. This has led depositors to try accessing their savings in various ways.

One way was depositors carrying out bank break-ins to demand their money back after Lebanese banks decided to lock most of the depositors' savings, rendering the overwhelming majority of the population unable to pay for basic goods.

The small Mediterranean country defaulted on its debt in 2020; the Lebanese currency has lost around 90% of its value on the black market, and the UN now considers four in five Lebanese to be living under the poverty line.

For more than two and a half years, Lebanon's banks have been imposing restrictions on depositors' funds in foreign currency, especially the dollar, and placing harsh ceilings on the withdrawal of funds in Lebanese pounds.