US Report Reveals Lebanese Banks’ Ties with Al-Qard Al-Hassan

US Report Reveals Lebanese Banks’ Ties with Al-Qard Al-Hassan

A report by The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) said that the anonymous group SpiderZ that hacked Qard al-Hasan Association (AQAH) – Hezbollah's financial arm - exposed how Hezbollah transfers money and the role Lebanon’s banking system plays in the process.

It said that the US Treasury Department’s designations of Lebanese banks and of multiple Hezbollah entities, financiers, and money launderers point to the complicity of Lebanese banks in Hezbollah’s financial operations, however, the AQAH hack provided more evidence of this complicity.

“Through AQAH, Lebanon’s banks grant Hezbollah access to the international banking system, 13 years after Treasury designated AQAH,” the FDD report said.

"The hacked files include account information for nearly 400,000 individuals and entities. In addition to average Lebanese citizens, the documents exposed expatriates, Hezbollah cadres and institutions, so-called “major depositors,” Iranian entities, and, importantly, the Lebanese banks that serviced AQAH."

Despite its designation by Washington in 2007, AQAH has maintained its relationship with Lebanese banks.

The leaked documents identify banks that provided accounts and services to the Association and maintained correspondent accounts with AQAH, including seven Hezbollah officials who were sanctioned by the US.

A research fellow at FDD Tony Badran, who greatly contributed in writing the FFD report, told Asharq Al-Awsat