The US Treasury Department targeted a Hezbollah finance network with fresh sanctions on Friday, after its principal figures and front companies attempted to evade previously leveled sanctions by shifting control of the companies to family and associates.
The Lebanese United Group, Securol Glass Curtains, and Ravee SARL companies and five individuals were sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for being part of a Hezbollah network linked by family to deceased secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah.
The finance network centers around Muhammad Qasir, the brother of Nasrallah’s son-in-law Hassan Qasir. Qasir was reportedly killed by the IAF in a 2024 Beirut airstrike, and Nasrallah’s son-in-law was reportedly killed in a Damascus airstrike a day later.
Qasir was sanctioned in 2018 for acting as a conduit for funds from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force to Hezbollah, the same year that another key figure to the network, Muhammad Qasim al-Bazzal, was sanctioned.
Bazzal, the son-in-law of Qasir, ran several companies including the Talaqi Group, which coordinated IRGC-linked oil shipments. Bazzal founded Talaqi with his wife, Fatimah ‘Abdallah Ayyub, who is also the general manager of Alumix. Talaqi partners with Alumix for aluminum shipments to Iran, and Ayyub provided payment information to Talaqi.
Hezbollah front companies Alumix and Talaqi were sanctioned due to their control by Bazzal and status, but since 2019 he has sought to remove himself from company documents that list him as an owner and shareholder, which OFAC presumed to be an attempt to evade sanctions.
Control of Talaqi and two other groups was transferred to Bazzal’s brother, Rashid Qasim al-Bazzal, who was sanctioned on Friday. While his brother controls the daily operations, Muhammad Qasim al-Bazzal remains in charge of relations with Hezbollah.
Ayyub was also sanctioned Friday for her involvement in Hezbollah commercial projects, including Talaqi. The Lebanese United Group was in part controlled by Ayyub, and two other sanctioned individuals, Hawra’ ‘Abdallah Ayyub and Mahasin Mahmud Murtada.
Both Abdallah Ayyubs, Murtada, as well as another person sanctioned Friday, Jamil Mohamad Khafaja, are the co-owners of Alumix. Securol Glass Curtains shares the same address as Alumix, which is owned by Khafaja.
Murtada was the wife of the now-deceased Hezbollah royal Muhammad Qasir. OFAC said that even prior to Qasir’s demise, she held influence over issues pertaining to Hezbollah finances and weapons smuggling, and reportedly holds ownership of several other companies associated with Hezbollah commercial enterprises.
“Today’s action underscores Treasury’s determination to expose and disrupt the schemes that fund Hizballah’s terrorist violence against the Lebanese people and their neighbors,” Bradley Smith, the Treasury’s acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a Friday statement. “These evasion networks strengthen Iran and its proxy Hizballah and undermine the courageous efforts of the Lebanese people to build a Lebanon for all its citizens.”
Maximum pressure on Iran
OFAC said that the efforts against the Hezbollah network and its evasive maneuvers was part of its commitment to the February 4 executive order to impose maximum pressure on Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons and to counter its malign influence.
The order calls for the Treasury to impose sanctions and other measures to deny the Islamic regime and terrorist proxies like Hezbollah access to revenue.
The American Jewish Committee thanked the US federal government for its efforts in a Monday X/Twitter post.