LEBANON: Hackers reveal personal information of account holders with Hezbollah affiliated Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association

BEIRUT — Lebanese Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has publicly claimed on more than one occasion that Hezbollah had no money in Lebanese banks. However, Al-Arabiya revealed that a cyberattack targeting the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association affiliated with Hezbollah uncovered that it acts as a major source financing and money laundering. Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association is included on the U.S. sanctions lists.

The hacker group Spiderz published lists of financial account owners in every branch of the Association, in addition to the personal information of customers and the Associations 2019 and 2020 budgets.

The hack revealed that more than one bank was providing services to Hezbollah through the association, including the Lebanese Canadian Bank and Jammal Trust Bank, both of which were placed on a US sanctions list in 2019.

Two banks mentioned in the hacked accounts, Societe Generale and Byblos Bank, quickly denied any relationship with Al-Qard Al-Hassan.

Spiderz stated that more information is to be disclosed at a later time and called on customers who deal with the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association to withdraw their money and boycott Hezbollah.

The Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association began operations in the 1980s and was initially registered as a charitable association. Today, it provides loans of about $ 500 million to more than 200 customers from the Shia community.