EU HAS A NEW FUNDRAISING PROGRAM TO PREVENT HEZBOLLAH'S MONEY LAUNDERING

FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner – Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA ~ Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock

WILL EU BANKS NOW INTERDICT HEZBOLLAH FUNDRAISING ACTIVITIES DUE TO THE SANCTIONS NOW IMPOSED ?

The sanctioning of Hezbollah's so-called military wing, by the European Union, is a major step in the right direction, but it begs the question: How will EU banks protect themselves from terrorist financing 

activities, now that fundraising is illegal ?

Obviously, there is a well-established program of fundraising, operated by Hezbollah agents in the EU, and these pipelines must now be identified, and closed down, forthwith, lest there be exposure to charges of providing material support to terrorism.

One must assume that compliance officers at international banks, located in the EU, whose clients transfer funds to Lebanon, for any reason, are initiating a broad-based review of such clients, their lines of business, and whether the payments they send to the Middle East ultimately end up in Beirut, in Hezbollah accounts.

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HEZBOLLAH CONTINUES TO SHIP DRUGS TO LEBANON

FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner – Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA   ~Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock ~

BEIRUT AIRPORT 12 KILO COCAINE SEIZURE CAME FROM NIGERIA

The seizure, at Beirut's Hariri Airport, of twelve kilograms of cocaine, which had arrived from Kano, Nigeria, should serve as a reminder that the repatriation of narcotics profits, to Latin America, can easily be accomplished from banks located in the Middle East. Whether these drugs were destined for the growing European market is not known, but irrespective of the location of the end users/consumers,  paying for them from a Beirut bank is generally a low-risk transfer.

Whether the payment, through Panama or to banks in the tax havens of the Caribbean, is disguised as an international trade transaction, or some other fictitious business reason, the repeat nature of these types of transactions sometime will signal their true nature. Always make further inquiries, when there are wire transfers that appear to be unusually repetitious in their nature, or which do not seem to be similar to those others, in that trade or industry, that you have experienced from those jurisdictions.

Remember that good money launderers always seek to clothe their illicit transfers with legitimate covers, but that you may find some aspect of the transfers to be inconsistent with the industry that it professes to be involved in. 

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HEZBOLLAH EXPOSED BY ARAB WORLD AS TERRORIST.

FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner – Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA ~ Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock

GCC SANCTIONS AGAINST HEZBOLLAH WILL CAUSE ADJUSTMENT IN TERRORIST FINANCING PIPELINES

The announcement, by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), declaring that its member states shall impose sanctions upon Hezbollah, for providing military support to the Assad regime, will result in a realignment of the routes that the terrorist organisation uses to funnel criminal proceeds to its Beirut headquarters. You should be alert for the sudden appearance of new pipelines for Hezbollah narco-profits, lest you unwittingly facilitate these transfers, and pay for it later with regulatory fines & penalties, imposed by the GCC or the United States.

The GCC sanctions are specific; they involve:

(1) Hezbollah and Hezbollah loyalists.

(2) Their residences.

(3) Their financial and business transactions.

If you have clients who have been regularly remitting funds to any of the six GCC countries: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and the UAE, and the wire transfer instructions have been amended, to send all payments to Lebanon, forthwith, you may be seeing Hezbollah transfers taking a new, more direct, path home. The original path, through a low-risk GCC Middle East country, is now no longer safe or acceptable, due to the Council's new policies about Hezbollah.

Ask these questions:

(A) Are there regular payments, and are they substantial ?

(B) Was the change in beneficiary abrupt, and effective immediately ?

(C) What is the reason that the client has cited for the change in instructions ?

If you are a compliance officer at an international bank whose clients trade regularly with the Middle East, brief your bank staff to notify you forthwith, should any client suddenly shift payments to Lebanon.

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