Accused Hezbollah financier pleads guilty in US to evading sanctions

A former Lebanese diplomat accused of being a financier for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah pleads guilty to evading US financial sanctions against him and his terror organization.

Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi, 60, who holds Lebanese, British and Belgian citizenship, pleads guilty in a federal court in New York to conspiracy to conduct unlawful transactions with an international terrorist, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice.

Bazzi had “accepted responsibility for his role in conspiring to secretly move hundreds of thousands of dollars from the United States to Lebanon in violation of sanctions placed on him for assisting the terrorist group Hezbollah,” US prosecutor Breon Peace says.

Bazzi faces up to 20 years imprisonment, as well as deportation and forfeiture of the $828,528 involved in illegal transactions.

No sentencing date has been set.

The State Department in May 2018 had declared Bazzi to be a “specially designated global terrorist” and offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has said Bazzi “has provided millions of dollars to Hezbollah over the years, generated from his business activities in Belgium, Lebanon, Iraq and throughout West Africa.”

In February 2023, he was arrested in Romania and extradited to the US.

The US attorney’s statement says Bazzi had worked with an accomplice, Talal Chahine, who remains on the loose in Lebanon.

According to investigative journalism outlet ProPublica, Bazzi was appointed honorary consul in Lebanon by the government of Gambia in 2005. The volunteer diplomat role helped him access unique connections and benefits, which can be ripe for abuse.