Bazzi Pleads Guilty to Illegal Transactions with Terrorist Group

Lebanese national Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi pleads guilty to conspiring with U.S. persons in illegal transactions.Photo byWesley TingeyonUnsplash

Lebanese national Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi, 60, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to engage U.S. persons in unlawful transactions with a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, according to the Department of Justice.

In May 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Bazzi as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist for providing financial, material, and technological support to Hizballah, the DOJ reported.

According to the OFAC designation, Bazzi is a key Hizballah financier who has provided millions of dollars to the group through his business activities in Belgium, Lebanon, Iraq, and West Africa.

As a result of the designation, Bazzi's interests in any U.S. property were blocked, and U.S. persons were generally prohibited from conducting business with him or on his behalf.

Court documents state that Bazzi and his co-defendant, Talal Chahine, conspired to force a U.S. individual to liquidate Michigan real estate assets and transfer the proceeds to Lebanon without the required OFAC licenses, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

The DOJ said Bazzi and Chahine discussed various ways to hide Bazzi's involvement in the sale proceeds, aiming to deceive OFAC and law enforcement by making the transactions appear legitimate and unrelated to them. For example, they suggested transferring the funds through:

A third party in China for a fictitious purchase of restaurant equipment;

A third party in Lebanon for a fictitious real estate deal;

Chahine's family members in Kuwait for fictitious intra-family loans; and

A fictitious franchising agreement to operate a Lebanese-based restaurant chain in the United States.

Bazzi was arrested by Romanian authorities in February 2023 and later extradited to the Eastern District of New York. His sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date, where he faces up to 20 years in prison.

Bazzi has also agreed to forfeit nearly $830,000 involved in the illegal transaction and will be deported after serving his sentence.