U.S. authorities have blacklisted one of Beirut’s major financial institutions, Lebanese Canadian Bank, alleging that it is part of a drug trafficking network that benefited the banned Islamist group Hezbollah.
The bank was involved in a complex scheme in which cocaine was shipped from Colombia and Panama and retailed in Europe and the Middle East, U.S. officials said. They alleged that the proceeds were deposited with LCB in Beirut, wired to U.S. accounts and used to buy second-hand cars that were resold in western Africa.
LCB doesn’t move or accept money in Canada, but it was once owned by the Royal Bank of Canada. Lebanese-Canadian investors bought it in 1988, and it has a sales office in Montreal.
The Montreal office is registered with the federal Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, and Canadian federal officials are reviewing LCB’s status, Finance Department spokeswoman Stephanie Rubec said.
“[Hezbollah] derived financial support” from the network, which was headed by alleged Lebanese kingpin Ayman Joumaa, said James Freis, head of FinCEN, the anti-laundering arm of the U.S. Treasury Department. He added that the network moved up to $200-million every month.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/us-blacklists-lebanese-canadian-bank/article1902026/
