Lebanese Banks Accused Of Laundering Hezbollah Cash

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Three Lebanese financial institutions linked to Hezbollah laundered more than $300 million through the US second-hand car market, to a report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

A lawsuit filed by the US Justice Department accuses the Lebanese Canadian Bank and two money-exchange firms laundering drug-trafficking and criminal proceeds to help Hezbollah to buy and ship cars to West Africa.

The civil suit filed at Manhattan federal court on Thursday alleges that between January 2007 and early 2011 at least $329 million of drug-trafficking and criminal proceeds was wired from Lebanon to the US to buy second-hand cars, which were then transported to West Africa.

Cash from their sale was allegedly then smuggled to Lebanon, along with funds from Colombian and Mexican cartels.

Prosecutors are seeking $480 million in penalties from the three institutions. They say this represents the total amount of money laundered.

Prosecutors say they will freeze and seize the assets of the companies, along with those of about two dozen US car dealerships and a US shipping company, which are accused of facilitating the terrorist-linked criminal enterprise.

Hezbollah, a Shiite Islamist movement, was designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US government in 1997.

“Cash from the sale of the cars, along with the proceeds of drug-trafficking, were then funnelled to Lebanon through Hezbollah-controlled money-laundering channels,” the US Attorney’s Office said.

“We are putting a stranglehold on a major source of that funding by disrupting a vast network that spanned three continents”

Couriers, smugglers and currency brokers brought the cash to two money-exchange companies in Beirut – the Hassan Ayash Exchange Company and Ellissa Holding – which then deposited it at the Lebanese Canadian Bank, it added.

Prosecutors said the bank had allowed other Hezbollah-related entities to conduct massive transactions, sometimes worth as much as $260,000 per day, without disclosing the source or purpose of the money.

“Substantial portions of the cash were paid to Hezbollah,” the US Attorney’s Office said.

US Attorney Preet Bharara said the “intricate scheme” revealed the “deviously creative ways that terrorist organisations are funding themselves and moving their money, and it puts into stark relief the nexus between narcotics trafficking and terrorism”.

“We are putting a stranglehold on a major source of that funding by disrupting a vast and far-flung network that spanned three continents.”

In February, the Lebanese Canadian Bank merged with a subsidiary of Societe Generale after the US treasury designated it as a “primary money laundering concern”, forbidding US institutions to deal with it.

A lawyer for the Lebanese Canadian Bank’s former owners has denied any wrongdoing, as have the money-exchange companies.

Hezbollah has dismissed the charges as American propaganda.

The suit was filed two days after a Lebanese man linked to Hezbollah, Ayman Joumaa, was indicted in Virginia on charges of conspiracy to distribute narcotics and commit money-laundering related to trafficking by Mexican and Colombian cartels. His whereabouts are still unknown.

Jim Kouri

Jim Kouri, CPP, formerly Fifth Vice-President, is currently a Board Member of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, an editor for ConservativeBase.com, and he's a columnist for Examiner.com. In addition, he's a blogger for the Cheyenne, Wyoming Fox News Radio affiliate KGAB (www.kgab.com). Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty.

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