Alleged Hezbollah financier likely to plead guilty in US sanctions trial

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A Lebanese-Belgian national accused by the United States of funding the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah is expected to plead guilty in a criminal case on charges of sanctions evasion and money laundering conspiracy.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said in a court filing Thursday that lawyers for Mohammad Bazzi had told them he wanted to change his confession. Bazzi, 60, pleaded not guilty last year to three counts, including attempting to do business with a sanctioned terrorist organization.

Bazzi's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US Treasury Department placed Bazzi on its sanctions list in 2018 because of his alleged ties to Hezbollah, which Washington considers a terrorist organization.

Prosecutors alleged that Bazzi secretly sold real estate he owned in Michigan and transferred the funds abroad in violation of those sanctions.

Bazzi was extradited to the United States in April 2023 from Romania, where he had been arrested two months earlier.

Prosecutors and Bazzi's lawyers jointly asked U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry to schedule a hearing later this month at which Bazzi can change his guilty plea.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen; Editing by Alistair Bell)