The U.S. Department of the Treasury has blocked all American property interests of several persons who were found helping Hassan Moukalled and his money-changer company CTEX Exchange avoid U.S. sanctions for supporting the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah.
The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control identified two of Moukalled’s sons, Firas and Rayyan, as among his accomplices in avoiding the sanctions. The other persons named in the Treasury advisory were CTEX Exchange co-founders Andriyah Samir Mushantaf and Bashir Ibrahim Mansur; Adnan Mahmoud Youssef, a CTEX Exchange employee; and Mazen Hassan al-Zein, Moukalled’s United Arab Emirates-based business consultant.
According to the Treasury, Moukalled remains Hezbollah’s financial adviser, working closely with the group’s finance officials.
Earlier in January 2023, the Department of State imposed sanctions on Moukalled and his money changer business for facilitating Hezbollah’s financial activities. OFAC also added to the sanctions list the Lebanese Company for Information and Studies and the Lebanese Company for Publishing, Media and Research.
The State Department tagged Hezbollah as a terrorist group in October 1997, with 60 other countries and organizations also designating the organization as such.