US sanctions Lebanese network funding Hezbollah, targeting three individuals and four companies

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on three individuals and four associated companies in a Lebanon-based sanctions evasion network that "generates millions of dollars in revenue for Hezbollah." 

According to a press release by the Department of the Treasury, Hezbollah's finance team "is responsible for the establishment and operation" of the group's commercial projects throughout Lebanon, some of which are "financed and facilitated by Iran."

OFAC is also imposing sanctions on three individuals involved in the "illegal production and trafficking of Captagon that has benefitted Bashar al-Assad’s regime and its allies, including Hezbollah." 

“Today’s action underscores Hezbollah’s destabilizing influence within Lebanon and on the wider region, as the group, its affiliates, and its supporters continue to finance their operations through covert involvement in commercial trade and the illicit trafficking of Captagon,” Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith stated. 

The “Treasury will continue to expose and disrupt the illicit schemes that underpin Hezbollah’s ability to continue its violent attacks,” Smith added. 

The targeted individuals and entities include: 

Silvana Atwi, who works as the secretary of senior finance team official Muhammad Qasim al-Bazzal; Haidar Houssam al-Din Abdul Ghaffar, a Hezbollah finance team official; and Houssam Hamadi, a businessman and Hezbollah finance team associate. 

The U.S. also sanctioned the following companies: Global Tradeline SARL, G.M. Farm, Liban Oui SARL, and United Sons. 

It also designated Khaldoun Hamieh, who "has been identified as a Lebanon-based drug trafficker with ties to Hezbollah and the OFAC-designated Fourth Division of the Syrian Arab Army (Fourth Division);" Syrian national Raji Falhout; and Adbellatif Hamideh, a prominent businessman in Syria, for "illicit trafficking of Captagon in support of the Syrian regime."