Info:
Hizballah has used AQAH as a cover to manage its financial activity. AQAH is run by Husayn al-Shami, a senior Hizballah leader who has served as a member of Hizballah’s Shura Council and as head of several Hizballah-controlled organizations;
Following the September 7, 2006 designation of al-Shami, along with Bayt al-Mal and Yousser Company for Finance and Investment, AQAH assumed a more prominent role in Hizballah’s financial infrastructure. As of February 2007, bank accounts of Bayt al-Mal and Yousser Company were changed and re-registered in the name of senior employees of AQAH;
Further, after the majority of Bayt al-Mal’s offices were destroyed during the summer 2006 conflict, Hizballah transferred a portion of its financial activity to AQAH, giving Hizballah access to the international banking system;
Bank Saderat Iran’s Lebanon branch is the lone Iranian bank working with AQAH. AQAH maintains eight correspondent accounts with the bank, four in liras and four in dollars. In 2006, Treasury, under the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (31 CFR Part 560), which prohibited certain transactions with certain Iranian banks, barred Bank Saderat from conducting direct or indirect transactions through the U.S. financial system. Treasury cited, among other things, Bank Saderat’s transfer of money to an unidentified “Hizballah-controlled organization.” The following year, Washington designated Bank Saderat under Executive Order 13224, which authorizes Treasury to freeze the assets of terrorists and their supporters. Treasury noted that “from 2001 to 2006, Bank Saderat transferred $50 million from the Central Bank of Iran through its subsidiary in London to its branch in Beirut for the benefit of Hizballah fronts in Lebanon.” Moreover, “Hizballah has used Bank Saderat to send money to other terrorist organizations.”;
Treasury’s actions forced Bank Saderat to find other ways to transfer money. It is possible Bank Saderat could clear funds hawala-style through AQAH’s various accounts with Lebanese banks;
Although the European Union lifted sanctions on Bank Saderat after the 2015 JCPOA, the Trump administration reportedly discussed the bank’s Lebanese operation with Lebanese officials in fall 2017. Well before Treasury’s eventual designation of JTB in 2019, Lebanese news reports claimed that then-Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing Marshall Billingslea urged Lebanese central bank governor Riad Salameh to shut down Bank Saderat and the Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank, the Lebanese subsidiary of the Commercial Bank of Syria. Washington sanctioned the Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank and the Commercial Bank of Syria in 2011;
Lebanese officials reportedly emphasized that Bank Saderat Iran was not a top-tier bank, and reiterated that its assets and deposits were small, that its operations were constricted, and that Lebanon’s Banking Association monitored it pursuant to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations;
Many of the Martyrs Foundation’s subsidiaries, which Treasury sanctioned in 2020, also hold accounts with AQAH;
Also Known As:
Al-Qard Al-Hasan
Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association
Al-Quard Al-Hassan Association
Al-Quardh Al-Hassan Association
Karadah Al-Hassan
Involved In:
Nuclear Weapon Program
Missile Weapon Program
Country:
Lebanon
Address:
Beirut, Lebanon