The United States sanctioned on Thursday a Lebanese currency exchange and its owner for processing transactions for the terrorist group Hezbollah and for money-laundering on behalf of Colombian drug cartels.
The targeting of Chams Exchange and Kassem Chams comes as the United States seeks to stop Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“We are laser-focused on what’s going on in Lebanon,” said U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “We will continue to have a heavy focus on any entity or organization that is moving money on behalf of Hezbollah.”
“We are urging Lebanese authorities to take action to strengthen their supervision measures and undertake public aggressive enforcement action to root out this kind of money laundering,” she added.
Chams denied the accusations to The Wall Street Journal.
“This is not right at all,” he said. “They absolutely are a mistake; this is a small shop.”
A Politico bombshell in December 2017 exposed the network of money-laundering and other crimes done by Hezbollah for which the Obama administration let pass in order to reach the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.