US sanctions 10 individuals over alleged Hezbollah cash-transfer network

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed on Thursday sanctions on 10 individuals who are “part of a network responsible for transferring cash” to Hezbollah.  

According to the Treasury Department statement, “the network utilizes couriers travelling on commercial airline flights between Lebanon, Turkiye, the UAE, and Iran to move up to hundreds of millions of dollars between jurisdictions, providing an avenue outside the formal financial system” for the group “to obtain foreign currency and evade sanctions.”

OFAC is also re-designating Hezbollah “for service to the Iranian regime under the command of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).”

The sanctions targeted the following individuals: 

Turkish businessman Yunus Alper Yilmaz; Yilmaz’s associates, couriers Halil Ibrahim Kacmaz and Onder Dede, as well as Vasfi Akyuz, “who has coordinated logistics for the couriers and also participates as a courier himself,” according to the statement. 

Additional couriers include Mehmet Akyuz, Mehmet Acur, Feyyad Karasalih, Masoud Mousafar, Gulay Kaya Savci, and Emrah Ayaz, “who have covertly carried cash intended for Hizballah on commercial flights to Lebanon.”