By Nohad Topalian | 2024-05-08

BEIRUT -- A massive financial scandal involving Hizbullah associates, led by key party financier Muhammad Jaafar Qasir, was brought to light via leaked secret documents revealed in an April 22 report aired by MTV Lebanon.

The documents revealed suspicious financial transfers that serve Iran's project in the region, according to the report.

They revealed the manipulation of tens of millions of dollars through currency exchange companies, and the theft of funds of Lebanese depositors that were stuck in the banking system.

Hizbullah "uses various methods of making suspicious financial transfers to finance its activities and the Iranian project," Hizbullah opponent Ahmed Yassin told Al-Fassel.

The Iran-backed party employs trusted individuals to keep its illicit dealings secret and uses fake companies "to launder and liquidate money in Lebanon and its areas of influence," he said.

One of the most prominent of these figures is Qasir, who is designated as a terrorist by the United States, which is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the disruption of Hizbullah's financial mechanisms.

"Qasir set up companies and establishments with his relatives, including some involved in the import of poor-quality Iranian iron and aluminum that he brings into Lebanon without going through customs," Yassin said.

These materials are delivered to al-Musawi Company, from which Qasir generates "huge sums of money for himself and Hizbullah," he said.

"He also set up fake establishments with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to sell Iranian oil in Syria and Türkiye, with a large portion of the revenues going to the IRGC and Hizbullah," Yassin said.

Money laundering operations

Qasir launders money through banking companies, including the CTEX Exchange, owned by Lebanese money exchanger Hassan Moukalled.

The source of the transfers includes donations from financiers sympathetic to Hizbullah in Africa and South America, Yassin said, "and comes from the trafficking and smuggling of drugs through massive networks."

After these funds enter the Lebanese financial and banking system, unknown Hizbullah operatives withdraw it, he said.

Yassin said Hizbullah manipulated the money of Lebanese depositors and withdrew it in "suspicious transfers," wiping out the funds of depositors.

According to European security studies, Hizbullah has established multiple joint networks that smuggle and traffic drugs and sell used cars and electrical appliances, political writer Fares Khachan told Al-Fassel.

Semiconductor chips from appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines "are pulled out of them for use by Iran and Russia to produce weapons," he said.

The proceeds from these illicit dealings are transferred "in suspicious and camouflaged ways" and ultimately end up in the party's coffers, he added.