US seizes USD 150 mn in Hezbollah-linked funds
22 Aug 2012 8:12 AM IST
US authorities on Monday announced the seizure of US$150 million allegedly linked to a scheme by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to launder proceeds from drug trafficking and other crimes.
The money came from an American bank account used by the Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) to conduct US currency transactions, US Attorney Preet Bharara and Drug Enforcement Administration chief Michele Leonhart said.
Washington considers the Shiite militant group a terrorist organisation and accuses Syria and Iran of providing its weaponry.
Monday’s seizure concerns a December 2011 money laundering and forfeiture complaint filed in US federal court in New York that targeted the bank and two other Lebanese financial institutions with alleged ties to Hezbollah.
‘As we alleged last year, the Lebanese Canadian Bank played a key role in facilitating money laundering for Hezbollah controlled organizations across the globe,’ Leonhart said in a statement.
US prosecutors then alleged that the LCB, the Hassan Ayash Exchange Company and the Ellissa Holding Company wired funds from Lebanon to the United States to buy used cars, which were then sent to West Africa. Agencies
‘Cash from the sale of the cars, along with proceeds of narcotics trafficking, were then funneled to Lebanon through Hezbollah-controlled money laundering channels,’ the US Attorney’s office said at the time.
Hezbollah refuted the charges, saying they were ‘another attempt to tarnish the image of the resistance in Lebanon,’ but US prosecutors said there was no doubt about the institutions’ ties to the militant outfit.
‘Our relentless pursuit of global criminal networks showed that the US banking system was exploited to launder drug trafficking funds through West Africa and into Lebanon,’ Leonhart said Monday.
‘DEA and our partners are attacking these groups and their financial infrastructure, while establishing clear links between drug trafficking proceeds and terrorist funding,’ she added.
Bharara said: ‘Money is the lifeblood of terrorist and narcotics organisations, and while banks which launder money for terrorists and narco-traffickers may be located abroad, today’s announcement demonstrates that those banks and their assets are not beyond our reach. We will use every resource at our disposal to separate terrorists and narco-traffickers, and the banks that work with them, from their illicit funds, even those hidden in foreign accounts.’
The United States earlier this month hit Hezbollah with sanctions as a penalty for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Hezbollah’s arsenal makes it the most powerful military force in Lebanon and the issue of its weaponry is considered one of the most destabilising factors in the country.
Hezbollah considers its weapons to be a legitimate safeguard against Israel, but the Lebanese opposition believes the government, and not a Shia militia, should be the arbiter of the nation’s arms and defense policy.
VENEZUELA PRISON BATTLE LEAVES 25 DEAD
Twenty-five people were killed and 43 others hurt in a prison battle in Venezuela as two armed gangs vied for control of a penitentiary near Caracas, authorities said.
One of the dead was a visiting relative while the 24 others were prisoners, some of whom were shot in the face at point-blank range during clashes on Sunday in the Yare I prison, said minister for prison affairs Iris Varela on Monday.
The facility was back under control on Monday after the latest bout of violence in Venezuela’s overcrowded prison system, where an estimated 300 people have been killed in 2012.
Hundreds of family members were visiting inmates when the violence broke out on Sunday. Some 900 women were still inside the prison on Monday, apparently to protect their jailed relatives.
Seventeen of the dead have been identified but fingerprints need to be taken to name the rest because those with gunshot wounds to the face could not be identified, Varela said.
Varela said the clashes – which left 29 prisoners and 14 visiting relatives injured – erupted after a shot was fired during a ‘discussion’ between leaders of two factions in the prison, though the initial shot did not hit anyone. ‘It was the spark that lit the fire,’ she said. ‘Those responsible for the deaths within the prisons must answer for them,’ she said on Monday, adding that fighting was instigated by inmates ‘who want to maintain control through force.’
The money came from an American bank account used by the Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) to conduct US currency transactions, US Attorney Preet Bharara and Drug Enforcement Administration chief Michele Leonhart said.
Washington considers the Shiite militant group a terrorist organisation and accuses Syria and Iran of providing its weaponry.
Monday’s seizure concerns a December 2011 money laundering and forfeiture complaint filed in US federal court in New York that targeted the bank and two other Lebanese financial institutions with alleged ties to Hezbollah.
‘As we alleged last year, the Lebanese Canadian Bank played a key role in facilitating money laundering for Hezbollah controlled organizations across the globe,’ Leonhart said in a statement.
US prosecutors then alleged that the LCB, the Hassan Ayash Exchange Company and the Ellissa Holding Company wired funds from Lebanon to the United States to buy used cars, which were then sent to West Africa. Agencies
‘Cash from the sale of the cars, along with proceeds of narcotics trafficking, were then funneled to Lebanon through Hezbollah-controlled money laundering channels,’ the US Attorney’s office said at the time.
Hezbollah refuted the charges, saying they were ‘another attempt to tarnish the image of the resistance in Lebanon,’ but US prosecutors said there was no doubt about the institutions’ ties to the militant outfit.
‘Our relentless pursuit of global criminal networks showed that the US banking system was exploited to launder drug trafficking funds through West Africa and into Lebanon,’ Leonhart said Monday.
‘DEA and our partners are attacking these groups and their financial infrastructure, while establishing clear links between drug trafficking proceeds and terrorist funding,’ she added.
Bharara said: ‘Money is the lifeblood of terrorist and narcotics organisations, and while banks which launder money for terrorists and narco-traffickers may be located abroad, today’s announcement demonstrates that those banks and their assets are not beyond our reach. We will use every resource at our disposal to separate terrorists and narco-traffickers, and the banks that work with them, from their illicit funds, even those hidden in foreign accounts.’
The United States earlier this month hit Hezbollah with sanctions as a penalty for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Hezbollah’s arsenal makes it the most powerful military force in Lebanon and the issue of its weaponry is considered one of the most destabilising factors in the country.
Hezbollah considers its weapons to be a legitimate safeguard against Israel, but the Lebanese opposition believes the government, and not a Shia militia, should be the arbiter of the nation’s arms and defense policy.
VENEZUELA PRISON BATTLE LEAVES 25 DEAD
Twenty-five people were killed and 43 others hurt in a prison battle in Venezuela as two armed gangs vied for control of a penitentiary near Caracas, authorities said.
One of the dead was a visiting relative while the 24 others were prisoners, some of whom were shot in the face at point-blank range during clashes on Sunday in the Yare I prison, said minister for prison affairs Iris Varela on Monday.
The facility was back under control on Monday after the latest bout of violence in Venezuela’s overcrowded prison system, where an estimated 300 people have been killed in 2012.
Hundreds of family members were visiting inmates when the violence broke out on Sunday. Some 900 women were still inside the prison on Monday, apparently to protect their jailed relatives.
Seventeen of the dead have been identified but fingerprints need to be taken to name the rest because those with gunshot wounds to the face could not be identified, Varela said.
Varela said the clashes – which left 29 prisoners and 14 visiting relatives injured – erupted after a shot was fired during a ‘discussion’ between leaders of two factions in the prison, though the initial shot did not hit anyone. ‘It was the spark that lit the fire,’ she said. ‘Those responsible for the deaths within the prisons must answer for them,’ she said on Monday, adding that fighting was instigated by inmates ‘who want to maintain control through force.’
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