Alleged Hezbollah money man set to appear in New York federal court

An alleged financier for the Hezbollah terrorist organization is set to be arraigned in a federal court in New York this morning.

Mohammad Bazzi is accused of funneling millions of dollars to the Lebanese terror group. The US Department of Justice branded him a “key financier” of the organization.

He was arrested in Romania in February and extradited to the US yesterday.

The US Treasury has labeled Bazzi a “specially designated global terrorist for assisting in, sponsoring, and providing financial, material, and technological support and financial services to Hezbollah,” the US Attorney’s Office says in a statement.

Bazzi, 58, has been indicted on three counts related to conspiring to finance a terrorist group, and money laundering conspiracy. Each count carries up to 20 years in prison.

He allegedly provided Hezbollah with millions of dollars he had made through business activities in Belgium, Lebanon, Iraq and West Africa. Bazzi is a citizen of Lebanon and Belgium.

He and another defendant in the case, Talal Chahine, allegedly conspired to force someone in the US to liquidate real estate assets and covertly transfer them to Lebanon.

The defendants are accused of attempting to conceal the transaction from US authorities in several ways, including by making fake purchases of restaurant equipment from a Chinese company, inventing a fictitious loan to family in Kuwait, and manufacturing a fake franchise agreement for opening a Lebanese restaurant chain in the US.

Bazzi will appear before a US federal court in Brooklyn at 11 a.m.