By Ahmad Sabra | Writer
On January 24th, 2023, the U.S. The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned key individuals and entities accused of facilitating financial activities for Hizballah. The main subject of these sanctions was Hassan Moukalled, who was most commonly known as a financial expert who occasionally appeared on Lebanese media outlets and talk shows.
Aside from facilitating Hizballah’s financial activities, Moukalled and his money exchange company CTEX EXCHANGE were accused of “enabling Hizballah’s exploiting and exacerbating the Lebanese economic crisis at the expense of the Lebanese people” as per the Department of the Treasury’s announcement.
“As corruption undermines economic growth and the ability of individuals to provide for their families, the United States is committed to holding accountable those who exploit their privileged positions for personal gain,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “Today, the Treasury Department is taking action against a corrupt money exchanger, whose financial engineering actively supports and enables Hizballah and its interests at the expense of the Lebanese people and economy.”
These sanctions are a follow-up on those given in December 2022 that targeted individuals and companies that enable Hizbullah’s overarching financial apparatus, including Qard-Al-Hassan and Hizbullah’s central financial unit. The sanctions also included Hassan’s two sons, Rani and Rayyan Moukalled, for their role in assisting their dad in his financial activities.
It is important to note that Hassan Moukalled has obtained privileges from Riad Salemeh, Lebanon’s Central Bank (BDL) Governor, as Moukalled was able to immediately register his money exchange platform CTEX in July 2021, and his company was tasked by BDL to replace OMT in the buying of dollars from money exchangers for the benefit of the Central Bank.
The treasury also revealed that Moukalled was able to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit per day from its suspicious connections with the BDL governor, which enabled his company to dominate the money exchange market quickly.
Moukalled has previously responded to these allegations by saying that they stem from the resentment of small money exchangers towards him, for he claims that “he reduced the exchange rate by 10,000”.
Sources: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1211