Hezbollah financier arrested in Romania

Reports over the weekend said a “Lebanese and Belgian citizen considered a key financier of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah was arrested on Friday in Bucharest, Romania’s capital, US federal authorities said,” according to the Associated Press. The US Department of Justice noted in a document that sanctions-evasion and money-laundering charges were “unsealed against specially designated global terrorist Mohammad Bazzi and Talal Chahine.”

According to the document, the defendants conspired and attempted to avoid sanctions imposed on Bazzi for providing financial support to Hezbollah. “Bazzi was arrested in Romania today [Friday] and is pending extradition to the Eastern District of New York,” it said.

The three-count indictment unsealed on Friday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York charged Bazzi, identified as a Lebanese and Belgian citizen, and Chahine, a Lebanese citizen, “with conspiracy to conduct and cause US persons to conduct unlawful transactions with a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, attempt to conduct and cause US persons to conduct unlawful transactions with a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and money-laundering conspiracy. The indictment was returned under seal by a federal grand jury sitting in Brooklyn, New York, on January 27, 2023, and relates to Bazzi and Chahine’s alleged activities in the United States, as directed from Lebanon.”

The document continues, “As alleged, Bazzi thought that he could secretly move hundreds of thousands of dollars from the US to Lebanon without detection by law enforcement. Today’s arrest proves that Bazzi was wrong.... Our office is committed to ensuring that sanctions imposed by the US government are respected and that terrorism financiers are starved of funds.”

In 2018, Bazzi was designated as a terrorist by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control “for assisting in, sponsoring, and providing financial, material, and technological support and financial services to Hezbollah.” The OFAC noted that Bazzi was a key financier and “provided millions of dollars” to Hezbollah from “business activities in Belgium, Lebanon, Iraq and throughout West Africa.”

How does Hezbollah get around sanctions to transfer funds?

The report reveals the complex methods Hezbollah uses to get around sanctions and transfer funds. For instance, it involved “a third party in China as part of a fictitious purchase of restaurant equipment from a Chinese manufacturer, a third party in Lebanon as part of a fictitious real estate purchase, and family members in Kuwait as well as others in “a fictitious franchising agreement as payment for the rights to operate a Lebanese-based restaurant chain throughout the US.” The US has said it will seek extradition.

The arrest has been reported widely in the Middle East, including at The National and Asharq al-Awsat newspapers. This is a major milestone in the US attempt to go after the web of money laundering, shell companies and financing that prop up Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has thrived over the years by using complex means that span the globe, including flows of money from West Africa and South America.

Hezbollah continues to import arms and make Lebanon ungovernable. According to Lebanese TV station LBC International, “Bazzi was one of the individuals previously targeted in Operation Cassandra. Operation Cassandra was a US Drug Enforcement Administration investigation that targeted the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s global criminal activities, including drug trafficking and money laundering. The operation was launched in 2008 and continued until 2015, resulting in the arrest and prosecution of numerous individuals involved in Hezbollah’s criminal network.”

That report also notes that “Bazzi is a ‘close associate’ of Yahya Jammeh, the former president of Gambia who was sanctioned by the US in December 2017 for his record of human rights abuses and money laundering.” Several companies linked to him have also been designated.