US Treasury slaps sanctions on ‘Hizbullah financial network’

US Treasury slaps sanctions on ‘Hizbullah financial network’

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it has designated Ahmad Jalal Reda Abdallah, a Lebanese businessman and Hizbullah “financial facilitator,” as well as five of his associates and eight of his companies in Lebanon and Iraq.

“This action illuminates Hizbullah’s modus operandi of using the cover of seemingly legitimate businesses to generate revenue and leverage commercial investments across a multitude of sectors to secretly fund Hizbullah and its terrorist activities. It also demonstrates how Hizbullah goes to great lengths to establish companies with opaque ownership structure in order to conceal their involvement in these businesses, and also their involvement in criminal activities such as altering of medication labels for black market pharmaceutical sales,” the Treasury said in a statement.

Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson added that Hizbullah has built a web of businesses to “hide its activities and generate funds for its destabilizing activities, all at the expense of accountability and public safety in Lebanon and the region.”

“The designation of this network demonstrates the U.S. government’s commitment to protect Lebanon’s private sector and financial system from Hizbullah’s abuse by targeting and exposing the group’s financial activities,”