MORE MONEY LAUNDERING TRADECRAFT EMERGES FROM THE HEZBOLLAH PAGER & WALKIE-TALKIE EXPLOSIONS

If you read our previous article, "DID YOU CATCH THE ARTFUL USE OF A SHELL COMPANY IN THE HEZBOLLAH PAGER ATTACK IN LEBANON?" where we pointed out the likely use of traditional shell company laundryman tradecraft, your intellectual curiosity as a compliance officer should have been aroused. Yesterday, with a second round of lethal explosions, this time of handheld short distance communication devices, commonly referred to as walkie-talkies, several more clues have emerged.

While the CEO of the mysterious Hungarian company implicated in the distribution of the pagers denied responsibility, there are a number of other facts that again lead us to the methods and tactics often used by money launderers, but also by the opaque intelligence services if the world. The company, BAC, is said to have been administratively dissolved in 2022, but a successor company, with the same exact name, was subsequently created. The use of deceptively similar company names is an old school money laundering tactic, which is generally successful in deceiving victims regarding the legitimacy of whom they are dealing with. I repeatedly used it myself back in the day. That's one more indicator.

Additionally, the type and model of handheld device that exploded yesterday, ostensibly manufactured in Japan is, according to the company, an item that has not been made for a decade, and it issued a public warning regarding counterfeits. The most recent incident may not have been a supply chain interdiction, where explosives were inserted, but the covert manufacture of a counterfeit product, advertising it at a bargain price to the target, and delivering it as the real thing. Money launderers love to deceive their targeted banks by using companies with zero legitimate business activity, even creating bogus advertising, phantom sales operations, and receipt of "payments" to simulate legitimate commerce, all the while moving and cleaning dirty money.

The more we take a hard look at limited amount of facts and details surrounding the explosions, the more things we see. Sales staff in legitimate companies often hawk "deals" to their customers, to move merchandise that is stale or sitting in warehouses unsold for an extended period of time. Were these sales of handheld devices to Hezbollah purchasing agents, who thought they were getting authentic products, bargain basement sales? Intelligence agents are trained to use legacy money laundering tactics, because they usually work very well. In this case, they were eminently successful.