Hezbollah financier pleads guilty in US
Tajideen admits to engaging in up to $1b in unlawful transactions since 2009
ALebanese businessman accused of helping finance Hezbollah pleaded guilty Thursday to committing roughly $1 billion in unlawful transactions since 2009 in a deal with federal prosecutors that calls for five years in prison and a forfeiture of $50 million.
Kassim Tajideen, 63, is a Lebanese-Belgian citizen who headed a multibillion-dollar commodities shipping empire from Beirut.
He was arrested and charged in March 2017 with evading US government sanctions imposed after he was added in 2009 to a Treasury Department list targeting supporters of the Iranbacked organisation.
In federal court in Washington, Tajideen pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He has been held since he was arrested in Morocco in March 2017 at Casablanca’s airport while travelling on business from Guinea to Beirut.
US authorities called Tajideen’s guilty plea a victory in efforts to increase financial pressure against Hezbollah, which has been a US-designated terrorist organisation since 1997 and has fought in support of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in that country’s civil war and with armed insurgents against US forces in Iraq.
Tajideen was involved in a family business that has dominated poultry and rice markets, amassed real estate, and was reportedly active in construction and the diamond trade.
Tajideen admitted in the plea agreement to engaging in up to $1 billion in transactions cleared through the US financial system that were barred under sanctions laws, and wiring at least $30 million to unwitting US vendors for what Assistant US Attorney Thomas Gillice has said were purchases of poultry and grains.
US officials said Tajideen’s prosecution capped “Project Cassandra,” a three-year investigation into Hezbollah’s global logistics and financing arm that was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration and aided by US Customs and Border Protection.
Prosecutors alleged Tajideen secretly restructured his business, used new business names and misrepresented ownership to buy food commodities and security equipment.
The United States accused Tajideen of concealing his activities when he had claimed to be in compliance with sanction controls.