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U.S. says Hezbollah associate pleads
guilty to money laundering conspiracy
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 [May 27, 2017]
By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) - A Lebanese man accused of
trying to use his ties to Hezbollah to further a scheme to launder drug
money pleaded guilty on Friday in a Brooklyn, New York federal court to
a U.S. money laundering conspiracy charge.
U.S. prosecutors said Joseph Asmar, 43, of Beirut, entered his plea at a
hearing before U.S. District Judge Eric Vitaliano.
Asmar had been arrested in Paris in October 2015, and was extradited to
the United States 14 months later. He had also faced a money laundering
charge.
Aaron Altman, a lawyer for Asmar, said in an email: "ggggJoseph Asmar
has taken responsibility for his actions and is anxious to move forward
with his life. More than anything, he misses his family and prays that
they will be reunited in the near future."
Hezbollah is a Shi’ite Islamist political and military group in Lebanon
that the U.S. Department of State designates as a foreign terrorist
organization.
Asmar was charged following what prosecutors called a two-year sting
operation in which he and a Lebanese businesswoman, Iman Kobeissi, had
meetings with an undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent
posing as a trafficker.
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Prosecutors said Asmar claimed to be an attorney who boasted that
his connections at European and Middle Eastern banks enabled him to
launder money, and that he could use his Hezbollah connections to
provide security for drug shipments.
Undercover agents provided $400,000 in alleged drug proceeds to
Asmar and his co-conspirators, who laundered the money in exchange
for a commission, prosecutors said.
Asmar faces up to 20 years in prison. A sentencing date has not been
set. Kobeissi's case is still pending.
The case is U.S. v. Asmar, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of
New York, No. 15-cr-00491.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in Chicago; Editing by Andrew Hay)
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