The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated five individuals and two companies for helping U.S.-designated Hizbollah money exchanger Hassan Moukalled and his company, CTEX Exchange, evade sanctions and facilitate illicit activities in support of Hizbollah.
The individuals targeted include two co-founders of CTEX Exchange and two of Moukalled’s sons, who operate companies in Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that are also being designated.
These individuals have been accused of helping Moukalled evade sanctions and facilitating illicit activities in support of Hizbollah.
“Hizbollah continues to rely on seemingly legitimate business investments and key facilitators to generate revenue for the group’s operations, including its destabilizing attacks across Israel’s northern border,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “The United States remains focused on relentlessly pursuing Hizbollah’s key revenue sources and constraining its ability to further destabilize the region.”
Moukalled, a financial advisor to Hizbollah, has been accused of working closely with senior Hizbollah finance officials to represent Hizbollah’s business interests throughout the Middle East.
He has established CTEX Exchange as a financial facilitation front company for Hizbollah, along with Hizbollah senior officials Muhammad Qasir and Muhammad Qasim al-Bazzal.
The individuals targeted by OFAC include Adnan Mahmoud Youssef, an employee of CTEX Exchange who has sought investors to set up companies in the UAE on behalf of Moukalled; Mazen Hassan al-Zein, a UAE-based business consultant for Moukalled; Andriyah Samir Mushantaf and Bashir Ibrahim Mansur, co-founders of CTEX Exchange; and Firas Hasan Moukalled, Moukalled’s son, who is involved in his father’s business dealings.
The companies targeted include The Crystal Group, a Lebanon and UAE-based hospitality company owned by al-Zein, and Teleport Company SAL, a Lebanon-based company jointly owned by Mushantaf and two of Moukalled’s sons, Firas and Rayyan.
As a result of the designations, all property and interests in property of the designated persons that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC.
Additionally, engaging in certain transactions with persons designated today entails risk of secondary sanctions.
The designations are part of the US government’s ongoing efforts to disrupt Hizbollah’s financial networks and constrain its ability to destabilize the region.
The Iranian regime has long been a key supporter of Hizbollah, providing financial, military, and political backing to the group.
In fact, Hizbollah’s creation in the 1980s was largely facilitated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which provided training, funding, and weapons to the group.
Today, Iran remains Hizbollah’s primary patron, providing an estimated 700 million to 1 billion in annual funding to the group.
This support has enabled Hizbollah to maintain its military capabilities and continue to pose a threat to regional stability.
The US Treasury’s actions against Hizbollah’s financial networks are a crucial step in disrupting the group’s ability to operate and highlighting the Iranian regime’s role in supporting terrorism.
