Washington DC, October 23, 2024
WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an alert to assist financial institutions in identifying and reporting suspicious activity supporting Lebanese Hizballah (Hizballah), a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. The alert builds upon FinCEN’s May 2024 advisory on Iran-backed terrorist organizations and offers a comprehensive overview of Hizballah’s global criminal financial networks.
“Hizballah’s role in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has exacerbated the risk of a wider regional war, and its strikes on Israeli territory have displaced thousands and killed innocent civilians,” said FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki. “As part of the Treasury Department’s enduring campaign against Hizballah’s finances, and in response to Hizballah’s attacks against Israel, we are issuing this alert to help financial institutions uncover Hizballah’s illicit activities and protect the U.S. financial system from abuse by terrorists.”
Hizballah is part of a network of Iran-backed terrorist organizations that seeks to erode U.S. influence in the Middle East and encircle Israel with hostile forces. Hizballah has engaged in ongoing violence against Israel since its inception in 1982 and is responsible for multiple large-scale terrorist attacks around the world, to include attacks against U.S. interests and persons. In addition to receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in support from Iran, Hizballah’s revenue generating activities are global in scale and include oil smuggling, money laundering, black market money exchange, counterfeiting, and illegal weapons procurement.
Today’s alert is issued consistent with FinCEN’s Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism National Priorities, as well as Treasury’s 2024 National Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment. Questions regarding the contents of this alert should be sent to the FinCEN Regulatory Support Section at frc@fincen.gov.
The full alert is available online at FIN-2024-Alert003.
Source – U.S. FinCEN