Dechert Secures Dismissal of Class Action Lawsuit Against Lebanon's Central Bank in the United States

On April 29, 2026, Dechert secured a significant victory for Banque du Liban (BdL), Lebanon's central bank, in the class-action lawsuit captioned Najjar v. Salameh et al., 1:24-cv-05043 (D.N.J. 2024), accusing BdL, five Lebanese commercial banks, and several accounting firms of engaging in a RICO conspiracy to defraud Lebanese-American depositor plaintiffs in the United States. In its decision, the New Jersey federal court held that the case could not proceed against BdL on foreign sovereign immunity grounds, among other defenses BdL raised, because "when a foreign central bank acts to preserve exchange stability and allocate scarce foreign currency reserves during a shortage, it acts in a sovereign, not commercial capacity." This marks the fourth consecutive favorable decision secured by Dechert for the benefit of BdL, including the landmark decision issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Daou v. BLC Bank, S.A.L., 42 F.4th 120, 131 (2d Cir. 2022).

The Dechert team was led by litigation partner Gary Mennitt and included Camille Abousleiman, Michael McGinley and Tamer Mallat.

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