by thenational.ae —The head of Lebanon’s Association of Banks said on Thursday that the country’s financial sector had returned to Iraqi authorities nearly all money hidden in Beirut banks by officials under former dictator Saddam Hussein. The announcement came the day after the head of Lebanon’s General Security branch, Maj Gen Abbas Ibrahim, said that a joint operation with Iraqi authorities had prevented a $1 billion fraud scam targeting Iraqi branches of major Lebanese lenders. He announced that some suspects had been arrested. Joseph Torbey, the head of the banking body that represents the major Lebanese lenders, said during a media conference on Thursday that the network had exploited the history of Iraq with its recent change of regime and targeted the Lebanese banking sector “within a framework of organized crime.” Lebanese investigators claim that the Iraqi network brought Iraqi individuals who share the same names as members of the former Saddam regime to the Lebanese banks and requested access to millions of dollars in deposits from before 2003. Some of the members supplied forged documents to support their claims.