U.S. officials proposed to designate Baghdad-headquartered Al-Huda Bank as a “primary money laundering concern” Monday for handling funds for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and a pair of Iran-backed militias in Iraq: Katai’b Hizballah and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq.
The designation, which the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, pitched under section 311 of the Patriot Act, would bar domestic financial institutions from providing correspondent services to Al-Huda Bank, effectively severing the lender’s access to the U.S. financial system. The Office of Foreign Assets Control simultaneously blacklisted the bank’s owner and chairman, Hamad al-Moussawi, in tandem with the bureau’s proposal.
“Since its establishment, Al-Huda Bank has been controlled and operated by the IRGC,” FinCEN alleged in a 34-page notice. “Moreover, the chairman of Al-Huda Bank is complicit in Al-Huda Bank’s illicit financial activities, including money laundering through front companies that conceal the true nature of, and parties involved in, illicit transactions.”
Al-Huda Bank indirectly accesses the U.S. financial system through six foreign financial institutions, according to the notice, which does not identify the six by name.
Topics : | Anti-money laundering , Counterterrorist Financing , Sanctions |
Source: | U.S.: FinCEN , U.S.: OFAC |
Document Date: | January 29, 2024 |