meta_id 3421095

On August 20, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated ten individuals as part of a network responsible for transferring cash to Hizballah. The network uses couriers travelling on commercial airline flights between Lebanon, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran to move up to hundreds of millions of dollars between jurisdictions, providing Hizballah with an avenue outside the formal financial system to obtain foreign currency and evade sanctions. Turkish businessman Yunus Alper Yilmaz manages the courier network, abusing Turkey-based exchange houses as fronts for his business dealings and providing front companies and bank accounts for money transfers connected with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF). The network includes couriers Halil Ibrahim Kacmaz, Onder Dede, Vasfi Akyuz, Mehmet Akyuz, Mehmet Acur, Feyyad Karasalih, Masoud Mousafar, Gulay Kaya Savci, and Emrah Ayaz, who have covertly carried cash intended for Hizballah on commercial flights to Lebanon. Yilmaz, Kacmaz, and Dede are designated for materially assisting the IRGC-QF, while the remaining seven couriers are designated for materially assisting Hizballah. OFAC also re-designated Hizballah itself for service to the Iranian regime under IRGC-QF command, pursuant to Executive Order 13224, as amended. As a result of these designations, all property and interests in property of the designated individuals that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked. U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions involving designated persons unless authorized by OFAC licence. Violations may result in civil or criminal penalties. Foreign financial institutions that knowingly conduct transactions on behalf of designated persons risk secondary sanctions, including restrictions on maintaining correspondent or payable-through accounts in the United States.