A man with dual Lebanese and Belgian citizenship, who has been identified as a key financier of Iranian-Backed Hezbollah, was arrested in Bucharest, Romania’s capital, on Friday, according to US federal authorities.
Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi, 58, was designated as a “global terrorist” by the US in 2018, and a reward of $10 million was offered for information leading to his capture.
The authorities claim that Bazzi has provided millions of dollars in funding to Hezbollah over the years.
Last month, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that two Lebanese businessmen, Ali Saade and Ibrahim Taher, are designated as important financiers of Hezbollah in Guinea.
Breon Peace, US Attorney in Brooklyn, has sought the extradition of Bazzi and Chahine, who were arrested by Romanian law enforcement authorities.
Peace stated that “Mohammad Bazzi thought that he could secretly move hundreds of thousands of dollars from the United States to Lebanon without detection by law enforcement… Today’s arrest proves that Bazzi was wrong.”
According to authorities, Bazzi and Chahine plotted to force an individual in the US to sell their interest in real estate assets in Michigan and covertly transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars in proceeds out of the country to Bazzi and Chahine in Lebanon.
They were caught on recordings suggesting several methods to conceal the source and destination of the proceeds of the sale and their involvement in the scheme.
The defendants’ attempts to provide financial assistance to Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organization responsible for death and destruction, were condemned by Daniel Kafafian, acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration in New Jersey.
It is unclear who will represent the accused men when they appear in the US.
