NYC widow accuses Lebanese bank of ‘stealing' her family's $17.6M fortune

Yahoo

05-04-2025

'Corrupt' Lebanese banks stole $17.6 million from an Upper West Side widow and her three kids — and New York courts have refused to help them get their fortune back, she told The Post.
Patricia Raad said her husband, Michel, immigrated to the US when he was 18 from their native Lebanon, and spent a lifetime working his way up as a businessman in the cosmetics and perfume industry.
For 30 years until his death of cancer in 2009 at age 69, he sent the fruits of his labor — millions of dollars put in a trust for his kids — to Lebanon-based Bank Audi.
Nine years after his death, when the trusts matured and were ready to be accessed, Patricia told Bank Audi she planned to transfer the millions to New York.
But a Bank Audi manager allegedly begged her not to move the dough and then ignored agreements to deliver the funds, she said in a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit.
The bank manager 'started begging and pleading, saying, 'Please don't do that, it will look bad on me,'' Raad, 70, recalled. 'They betrayed me.'
Raad claims she signed agreements with Bank Audi managers in Lebanon to transfer the money in separate installments of about $2 to $3 million to herself, son and daughter — and paid taxes in America on the full amount while waiting.
But Bank Audi never transferred a dime, she said in court papers.
Lebanon spiraled into a crippling 2019 financial meltdown the World Bank later described as a 'Ponzi scheme,' which encouraged money to flow in while failing to pay for public services or safeguarding depositers such as Raad.
In 2022 it was reported that more than $100 billion in deposits were stuck in Lebanon's banking system, with that nation's financial institutions refusing to give people like Raad their cash.
'There can be no genuine debate that $17,623,674 of [Raad's] money on deposit with Bank Audi is immediately due,' she said in the lawsuit, which accused the bank of 'misappropriating' the money.
But Raad has had little luck getting New York courts to hear her story.
In March 2024, a Manhattan judge rejected her December 2020 lawsuit, contending New York had no jurisdiction over Bank Audi and that the dispute must play out in Lebanese courts.
Raad has appealed, and appeared before judges in the US Court of Appeals Second Circuit in Manhattan this week to plead her case.
If Raad lived in certain parts of Europe, she would likely be having an easier time fighting for her money, said her attorney, Douglas Kellner.
'England and France do allow their citizens to sue the Lebanese banks — but not the courts in New York,' he said.
Raad and her attorneys have argued New York has jurisdiction because Bank Audi had business relationships with Big Apple financial institutions such as Bank of New York Mellon, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase and Standard Chartered. The connection, known as 'correspondent banks,' allows one financial institution to provide services on behalf of another.
Being unable to get the money her husband secured for their family has been 'devastating,' she said.
'The trust was to protect his children and protect the money,' she said, adding that being deprived of the funds 'was like killing Michel a second time by taking his legacy.'