The House Committee on Foreign Affairs Thursday unanimously approved a measure that would penalize foreign banks that offer financial services to Hezbollah, an Iran-backed, Lebanon-based Shiite militant group.
A bipartisan bill targeting banks that offer financial services to Hezbollah is likely to garner broad political support among U.S. lawmakers, according to advocates of strong counterterrorist measures.
A transactional data handover mandated under a $102 million settlement disclosed Tuesday between the U.S. Justice Department and a defunct Beirut bank will likely lead to new financial crime investigations.
The U.S. Justice Department seized $150 million held for a Lebanese financial institution at accounts at five U.S. banks, as part of a crackdown on a purported terrorist financing network.
A Beirut-based lender acted as a "primary money laundering concern" by handling hundreds of millions of dollars for drug traffickers and a designated terrorist organization, U.S. officials said Thursday.