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A Canadian company has been sanctioned by the United States government over its connections to a $100-million network accused of funding Hezbollah.
The US Treasury Department announced sanctions on Vancouver-based Seven Seas for International Trading and Logistics on Friday, as part of a move that targeted 16 individuals and entities led by Hezbollah financier and former public investment official Alaa Hassan Hamieh (Alaa Hamieh).
The Treasury said Alaa Hamieh owns multiple Hezbollah-associated companies, including Lebanon-based Seven Seas SAL Offshore, Seven Seas Group S.A.R.L, and others.
Seven Seas for International Trading and Logistics is the Canadian branch of Alaa Hamieh’s similarly named Lebanese companies. Its co-founder and CEO is Lebanese-Qatari national Raoof Fadel.
Fadel is sanctioned on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list by the Office of Foreign Assets Control on account of his involvement with Hezbollah and the financing of Hezbollah.Seven Seas is sanctioned due to its association with Fadel and, thus, its connection to Hezbollah-related financial activity. All Seven Seas assets in the US are now frozen, and US persons and companies cannot do business with them.
Corporate records obtained by Global News show the sanctioned Seven Seas was registered in BC in 2022 and remains active. Its directors, Mohamad Wehbe and Ahmed Wehbe, have also been sanctioned by the US.
The company is not sanctioned in Canada.
BC’s Finance Ministry told the Canadian Press that it was not alerted to the situation before the US announcement, and officials are reaching out to federal counterparts.
“Any next steps from the province would be informed by that engagement with our federal partners,” it reportedly said.
Hezbollah is a designated terrorist entity in Canada as per the Criminal Code, and has been since December 2002.
The Treasury Department has sanctioned 40 Canadian companies and individuals. However, only seven are on the Specially Designated Global Terrorist list. One is Samidoun, which is accused of ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Look, folks, this is what actual financial warfare against terror looks like, and it is long overdue. While Canada sits there twiddling its thumbs and pretending Hezbollah is just some harmless social club with a rocket hobby, the U.S. Treasury is out here dropping the hammer on a slick $100 million money-laundering machine that funneled cash straight to the Iranian-backed killers.Alaa Hamieh, the former Lebanese public investment hotshot turned Hezbollah bagman, did not exactly hide his genius-level scheme. He just spread it around the family tree like a bad genetic trait. Lebanon-based Seven Seas outfits, Polish shells, Slovenian telecom fronts, a little Qatari flair, and boom, there is the Vancouver branch quietly humming along in British Columbia since 2022. Nice and legal on paper, until Uncle Sam notices the cash flow is not exactly headed toward puppy shelters.
Enter Raoof Fadel, the Lebanese-Qatari national playing CEO of the Canadian operation. Sanctioned. Frozen. Done. The whole Seven Seas crew in Canada now finds its U.S. assets locked tighter than a Trudeau apology, and American companies are officially told to steer clear or else. The directors, the Wehbe boys, they are on the list too. Shocker.
And yet, back in the Great White North? Crickets. The company is still active up there. BC’s Finance Ministry had to learn about it from the Americans, like some kid who missed the group text. “We are reaching out to federal counterparts,” they said. Translation: “We had no idea, please do not make us actually do something uncomfortable.”
Hezbollah has been a designated terrorist entity in Canada since December 2002, for crying out loud. That is not new information. It is not a surprise. It is just inconvenient when the money trail leads to nice Vancouver addresses and polite corporate filings.
The U.S. has now sanctioned 40 Canadian-linked folks and firms in this space. Only a handful make the big Global Terrorist list. One of them is Samidoun, the outfit accused of playing footsie with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Pattern recognition, people. It is not that hard.
Meanwhile, the Treasury keeps doing the job that half the Western world would rather outsource. They are following the money, freezing the accounts, and reminding everyone that funding rocket attacks on civilians does not get a pass just because you wrapped it in a logistics company with a fancy nautical name.
Seven Seas. Adorable. More like Seven Seas of Hezbollah cash. And Canada still cannot quite bring itself to care until Washington makes it impossible to ignore. Business as usual in the land of endless “engagements with federal partners.”
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