Kassim Tajideen To Be Granted An Early Release On Compassionate Grounds And
Awaits Deportation In July


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Convicted Hezbollah Financier To Be Released From U.S. Custody

Kassim Tajideen To Be Granted An Early Release On Compassionate Grounds And
Awaits Deportation In July

(New York, N.Y.) – Convicted Hezbollah financier and U.S.-designated “global
terrorist” Kassim Tajideenwill be released early
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by the U.S. on compassionate grounds, according to multiple press reports. A
court filing
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made on June 11 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) indicated
the 64-year-old Tajideen’s age and risk of contracting COVID-19 in prison
factored into the release order. BothU.S. officials
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and Tajideen’s lawyers have denied that his release was part of a deal made
with the Lebanese government in exchange for the return of a U.S.-Lebanese
dual-national, Amer al-Fakhoury.  Lebanon accused Fakhoury, who was released
and returned to the United States earlier this year, of torturing prisoners
during the Israeli occupation of Lebanon as a member of the now-defunct
Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army.

 

Before his March 2017 arrest, Tajideen
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brothers—Hussain <[link removed]>
andAli Taijdeen <[link removed]>
—operated multiple Hezbollah front companies across Africa and the Middle East.
The Tajideens’ African business network extends across multiple industries
including real estate, food processing, and the diamond industry. On March 7,
2017, a U.S. district attorney for the District of Columbia charged Tajideen
with fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, and violating global terrorism
sanctions regulations. According to the indictment, Tajideen conspired to carry
out illegal transactions with U.S. companies for his own enrichment, and to
“defraud” the U.S. through his businesses in Africa, Lebanon, and the United
Arab Emirates. The indictment also claimed Tajideen concealed and falsely
represented his activities on three occasions to the U.S. Treasury in 2010,
2012, and 2014. The charges stemmed from Project Cassandra, a two-year Drug
Enforcement Administration investigation into Hezbollah’s global support
network.

 

Five days after his indictment, Tajideen was arrested on an INTERPOL warrant
at Casablanca’s airport in Morocco while traveling from Guinea to Beirut. He
was shortly after extradited to the United States, where he pled not guilty to
the charges. On December 6, 2018, Tajideen changed his plea to guilty on
charges associated with evading U.S. sanctions imposed upon him. He admitted to
conspiring with at least five other people in conducting over $50 million in
transactions with U.S. businesses as well as engaging in foreign transactions
amounting to over $1 billion. On August 8, 2019, the U.S. District Court for
the District of Columbia sentenced Tajideen to five years in prison plus a $50
million forfeiture obligation.

 

To read CEP’s Kassim Tajideen resource, please click here
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