U.S.: Lebanese Financial Institutions Laundered Millions to Benefit Hizbullah
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Federal authorities blamed Lebanese financial institutions Thursday for wiring more than $300 million into the United States in a money-laundering scheme they said used the U.S. financial system to benefit Hizbullah.
The U.S. government said in the lawsuit filed in a Manhattan federal court that it seeks nearly a half-billion dollars in money-laundering penalties from some Lebanese financial entities, 30 U.S. car buyers and a U.S. shipping company. It also said it's entitled to claim their assets as forfeitable under U.S. money-laundering laws.
Prosecutors said the $300 million was wired from Lebanon to the United States and used to buy used cars and ship them to West Africa. They said Hizbullah money-laundering channels were used to ship proceeds from the car sales and narcotics trafficking back to Lebanon.
The accusations came two days after an indictment in federal court in Virginia accused fugitive Ayman Joumaa of leading a drug conspiracy that provided income for Hizbullah.
A Washington-based Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman, Lawrence R. Payne, told The Associated Press in February that Joumaa's organization laundered money using 50 used car lots in the United States. Cars were exported to Lebanon and West Africa.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the civil case brought Thursday reveals a massive international scheme in which the Lebanese Canadian Bank and two Lebanon-based houses, the Hassan Ayash Exchange Company and Ellissa Holding, passed money through the U.S. financial system to launder narcotics trafficking and other criminal proceeds through West Africa and back into Lebanon.
The government said substantial portions of the cash were paid to Hizbullah, which has been designated by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization since 1997.
"The intricate scheme laid out in today's complaint reveals the deviously creative ways that terrorist organizations are funding themselves and moving their money, and it puts into stark relief the nexus between narcotics trafficking and terrorism," Bharara said. "Today, we are putting a stranglehold on a major source of that funding by disrupting a vast and far-flung network that spanned three continents."
16 December 2011, 08:28
311
this is serious: they are targetting the banking system.
we are paying for the actions of hizbushaitan.
16 December 2011, 08:48
417
I renew my call for the United States to deport all these thugs and ship them to Iran at Iran's or Hizbullah's expense. They don't deserve to live in a civilized country.
16 December 2011, 11:17
28
i wonder how far your head is in the cloud mowaten . it is only a matter of time before the uS will sanction the banking system in Lebanon ,if history is any indication the united states will get the outlaws one way or another it is only a matter of time
16 December 2011, 13:34
18
@mwaten
as usual your comment is on technicalities!
it does not matter what is surrounging this subject, it is enough that 2 major banks are formally accused so the banking system falls down like a domino! wake up, and understand the extent of things. we have been repeating that hizbushaitan as is, is driving the country into a catastrophe, but n they want to keep doing what they are doing.
now we will all pay the price of these acts....
16 December 2011, 15:32
17
So it is ok for youthe country goes down but the resistance is untouched?
that is stupid!
if the country goes down the so called resistance will go down before it.
the country will then fall into the bloodiest sectarian violence ever, and destruction will touch all.
16 December 2011, 16:00
14
@swetting demon
no this is not correct, hizbushaitan did not need anybody's help to destroy the country. by not giving up their weapons and their allignment with the syro/iranians, they are costing us our sountry. it is their fault and no one else, and trying to pin this on M14 is pure stupidity and just rhetoric.
16 December 2011, 17:47
26
""they want us weak and divided. why do you think?""
that is exactly what the hezb is doing to lebanon! weakening the army weakening the state by not complying with its laws and so on...
the exact plan that israel wants too...
lebanon will get stronger if the hezb disappears! it is NOT a lebanese resistance as they do NOT want anyone but them to resist! why did they erase all the other resistance groups in the south? to rule it their way....
it is clearly stated on their flag what hezb is about : the islamic resistance... that is a fact!
16 December 2011, 17:59
20
the US is just pressuring lebanon into deleting bank secrecy and giving them the banking information of US citizens with bank accounts in Lebanon.
They already done that with switzerland untill the country caved in and gave the US the info they wanted
16 December 2011, 18:18
23
mowaten: israel fears a thriving lebanese economy! more than the weapons of the hezb!
i repeat and i am honest with myself that in NO country in the world you will find an armed political party stronger than the state itself!
if you really think about your country you wouldn t accept a party to be more armed than the army itself! in a STRONG state only the government has the decision of war or peace!! certainly not a party! what do you do with the role of the state?
it has no role whenever a party denies the right to the state to be the sole judge of war and peace! why should people then elect a gvt which is supposed to represent them when a party makes the laws and wages war without the approval of the state??
and yes the hezb erased all resistance to be the only master of the south!
it is called islamic resistance and not LEBANESE resistance...it says it all!!!!
16 December 2011, 18:22
23
oh and by the way what casualties did the hezb inflict to israel in 2006? not much despite the claims of rockets baad haifa which never fell!
lebanon suffered 10 times more of that "divine " victory than israel!
it increased also the lebanese debt which you accuse hariri of!!!
16 December 2011, 18:25
01
@Mowaten
Naharnet didnt write this...at the bottom of the article you can find the source. I used to support Hizbullah when Israel occupied our land. During time after, the "resistance" word made them arrogant and believing they are above all others.
The US doesnt need to divide us, we already have been so for ages
1. We have no state institutions and politicians are all corrupt. (personal disputes stop gov work)
2. All parties are fighting for the gov money hence they want to be in power and hijack it.
3. There is a lack of trust between all sects (and us Christians are divided from personal political leader disputes)
4. And in the micro view, all neighborhoods /cities / town residents feel they have to protect their grounds themselves.
Solution: Stop following political leaders so blindly and like sheep. We gave them power and we can take it away. If a civil war starts, we the people will pay the price AGAIN and not the political leaders.
16 December 2011, 18:32
25
@mowaten
What you are saying is totally wrong as a big number of lebanese are against this so called resistance which is actually only a tool in the hands of the syro/iranians.
we do not accept that one group dictates and causes the destruction of our country.
16 December 2011, 18:37
13
what threat ? does israel bomb egypt or jordan or syria the one your friends call resistant country? the first two made peace the last one has an agreement !
israel invaded lebanon to get rid of the armed palestinians at first then came your iranian friends who created the hezb...
so come on with your israeli excuse to let the hezb be stronger than the state!
this is not an argument but a piece of propaganda sorry mowaten!
israel is a threat not to lebanon but to the hezb...
and if you give me the dream of eretz israel then don t forget that syria considers lebanon as a province not a country...
16 December 2011, 18:44
23
for those who gave thumbs down on this comment=
"lebanon suffered 10 times more of that "divine " victory than israel!
it increased also the lebanese debt which you accuse hariri of!!!"
could they prove me the contrary instead of clicking?
i only ask for evidence so that i can learn something that maybe i didn t know!
16 December 2011, 19:23
46
all what you wrote mowaten is pure hezbi propaganda that we heard a million times...the same technique: brandish the fear of others, the others are responsible for all the evil not us!
(just a little example: the north of lebanon is mostly M14, but it is a sacrificed region... no lebanese gvt ever developped the north!)
so keep in your dreams and fantasies...
what i see is that you support a party working for a foreign country, that you have no faith in your government, that you believe that the south is a victim but only the south not other regions of lebanon, that the state of lebanon has nothing to say concerning weapons of political parties, in that case all parties should have the same rights as the hezb!
meaning you only trust the hezb but not implementing a state in lebanon which is the only one to make laws and rule...
16 December 2011, 19:29
24
@mowaten
lebanese from the south will be the first to reject hizbushaitan (who is of iranian affiliation by the way and serves their purposes) after their homes will be destroyed in the unfortunate upcoming war.
as much as the syrian regime is falling, hizbushaitan needs to become lebanese and give away their weapons to the state, as long as there still is time.
if you do not see this reality then you are bling and there is no use to continue this discussions, rather wait for the future to see what it will bring.
16 December 2011, 19:54
22
Mowaten, you are obviously young and under-educated. All fundamentalist organizations (suni and shee3i) are doomed to fail. And yes of course the hizzies are involved up to their neck in illegal activities (who are you trying to fool?), lebanese people with dual citizenships trafic money left right and center from europe to lebanon for the hizzies. Why are you denying facts?
The resistance was not started by shee3as bro, read some lebanese history and you would find that sunis as well as christians resisted the israelis way before the hizzie was even born. Please quit distributing wataneye, that is a broken record.
The "resistance" ended in 2000 and has since transformed under iranian growing influence into the equivalent of jaish mahdi in iraq. The rhetoric of the resistance has since become so flawed with sheer hypocrisy that no ten year old can tolerate.
Can you deny that the popularity of hassan is destroyed in the arab world??i used to wait for his speeches myself.
16 December 2011, 20:23
113
geha...."hizbushaitan needs to become lebanese" is freeing lebanon from israeli occupation non lebanese?? is freeing all Lebanese prisnoers from israeli prisons non lebanese?? if being lebanese is being a slave to wahhabi king abdullah then no thank you........
16 December 2011, 22:53
10
@zdm343...Thats great Lebanese are being freed from Israeli jails BUT how about freeing the Lebanese from Syrian jails as well or they arent Lebanese to you. The Assad family sure treats us like a brotherly country.
NOT 1 person from any M8 have even brought up the subject. So by default, they are traitors esp AOUN.
17 December 2011, 01:57
11
@mowatan I hear your arguments that but for Hezbollah's arms, Zionist expansion would come into south Lebanon, displace the local population and expropriate the water resources of the south for the benefit of Israel.
Of course, its all crap. Right wing nuts in Israel and Hezbollah are in a sybiotic relationship with each other. Hezbollah justifies the Right wing militarists in Israel and the Right wing militarists in Israel are justified by Hezbollah. Each would be out of business without the other and so both support and sustain the other for their own self survival.
Peace is the answer. True Israel needs water. True Lebanon has more than it needs. This is why water treaties are made. Money from Israel for Lebanese water would develop the south, legitimately. Hydro power from Lebanon, sold to Israel will develop Lebanon. The obstacle to the peace dividend flowing to Lebanon from Israel = Hezbollah and its daddy Benyamin Netanyahu
