Western Union, 'Whish Money' used to fund Hezbollah weapon acquisition campaign

Is Western Union taking part in the funding of Hezbollah’s weapons array? In May, Hezbollah launched an online fundraising campaign, calling on its supporters to donate money for drones and rockets to attack Israel.

The campaign, detailed extensively on the Qatari website Al-Araby Al-Jadid (The New Arab), featured a short clip with the slogan, “Lift your head high to the sky, and see where your support is,” referring to Hezbollah’s aerial weapons array, and sending viewers to contact the Islamic Resistance Support Organization (IRSO, aka Islamic Resistance Support Association, or IRSA), which has been designated as a terrorist group under US law since 2006, for money transfers and more information.

The IRSO holds several accounts in Al-Qard al-Hassan (AQAH), which is considered Hezbollah’s financing firm and quasi-banking system. It was designated by the US in 2007 as Hezbollah’s financial firm. It made headlines over the past couple of weeks following the IDF’s targeting of its institutions as part of the attempt to decimate the terrorist organization’s funding abilities.

Hosein Mortada, a Lebanese writer who has played significant roles in Iran’s media endeavors, including the Al-Alam channel and the Syrian state-owned Syrian News Channel, promoted the campaign on X, potentially indicating even stronger ties to Iran’s loyalist axis.

Money transfers to this campaign are made possible either through Western Union services or through Whish Money (formerly WOO Cash), people familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post.

Whish Money is a financial-services company in Lebanon that is owned by Syrian nationals. It has more than 900 branches and agents across the country and focuses on financial solutions, both domestically and internationally, including money-transfer services, currency exchange, e-wallets, and investments.

The IRSO has used both Western Union and Whish Money frequently in the past, and not only for this specific campaign, the sources said.

The campaign was traced to Mahmoud Ali Al-Haj Hassan, originally from Baalbek, Lebanon, who has several accounts on Hezbollah’s AQAH and has shown staunch support for the Iranian proxy on his social-media accounts. Hassan is the brother of Hussein Ali Alhaj Hassan, a former member of the Lebanese parliament and a minister on behalf of Hezbollah, who also has several accounts on Hezbollah’s AQAH.

A recently developed Israeli technology system facilitated the research on the Hassans’ identity and accounts.

Western Union’s role in facilitating the funding for Hezbollah was made public in Israel in 2017, when its services were used as part of the “equip a mujahid” campaign.

Whish: a dubious actor under scrutiny

A Western Union spokesperson said: “We take our regulatory and compliance responsibilities very seriously, including our role in the fight against terrorist financing. To that effect, we have programs in place that screen Western Union transactions against internal and government watch lists. Additionally, our internal Financial Intelligence Unit pursues intelligence leads and analysis about a broad range of global terror groups. We remain committed to working closely with governments and law enforcement authorities to continue addressing terrorist financing activities.”

According to its website, Whish Money cooperates with several companies across the globe, including Mastercard, US-based Ria Money Transfer and Sendwave, and UK-based Shift Transfer.

SEVERAL OUTLETS have published exposés and reports regarding Whish Money. One such study, conducted in 2022 by Geneva-based Lebanese investment banker Samara Azzi for the Now Lebanon website, revealed that although the Bank of Lebanon has endorsed the group as a vetted company, it also exhibits some dubious characteristics.

The company is owned by Toufic Adnan Koussa, a Syrian national who was granted Lebanese nationality under former Lebanese president Émile Lahoud. The study also revealed that Whish Money circumvented Lebanese banks by providing companies and NGOs with a service that enabled them to disburse employee salaries without any fees, distancing itself from the central banking system after receiving lists containing extensive employee data.

Azzi’s exposé stressed that an incredible amount of data from workers appears to be collected without any knowledge of who monitors it and for what purposes. In order to carry on with a business model involving no fees, the users must be the product, while someone must have “deep pockets,” he said.

According to Azzi’s investigation, workers at the Lebanese Finance Ministry are also involved in providing Whish Money with higher priority over the banking system. Witnesses reported that sometimes, upon attempting to pay bills at the local ministry office, ministry cashiers would give different excuses, send citizens to local Whish Monday branches, and then collect a “tip” or “salary” from Whish Money.

In this context, online users said aside from selling the data collected about employees, the only way Whish Money’s model would be profitable was if it needed to show vast amounts of cash movement in order to launder money on a large scale. Bloggers said Hezbollah would be the only major player in need of such large-scale money laundering in Lebanon due to sanctions imposed on it.

Whish Money was also mentioned in a June 2023 report by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, focusing on Hezbollah’s exploitation of the Lebanese economic crisis for its own benefit and growth. The report deemed Whish Money the fourth major player in Lebanon’s non-regulated cash economy. It called on policy-makers to target Whish Money and its owners based on international money-laundering rules, citing its reported ties to Hezbollah’s monetary array.

The same report described Hezbollah as exploiting and profiting from the Lebanese national crisis in addition to building an essentially parallel state and widening its private-sector role. The crisis in Lebanon brought about the development of a cash economy that plays well into Hezbollah’s hands in a manner that echoes the recent IDF exposés regarding vast amounts of cash stashed under Hezbollah-run institutions in Beirut, the report said.

It emphasized the role of Al-Qard al-Hassan in exploiting billions of dollars from remittances, exchange companies, and Iraqi money. This has led to the flourishing of the financing group, while conventional financial institutions in Lebanon face demise and degeneration, the report said.