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Source: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67997/matthew-levitt/hezbollah-party-of-fraud
Hizbullah: Party of Fraud
(Foreign Policy) Matthew Levitt - A series of international investigations into Hizbullah's criminal activities over the past several years has revealed a sophisticated, organized, global crime network bringing in tens of millions of dollars in profit each year. In Miami last October, a group of businessmen pled guilty to attempting to ship electronics to a shopping center in South America that the U.S. Treasury Department designated as a Hizbullah front. In Philadelphia in 2009, ten individuals were charged with conspiring to provide material support for Hizbullah through trafficking counterfeit goods. Since the early 1990s, Hizbullah has operated with a guaranteed annual contribution of at least $100 million a year from Tehran. Early last decade, Iran doubled that investment to more than $200 million a year. But according to Israeli intelligence, economic pressures forced Tehran to slash its annual budget for Hizbullah by 40% in early 2009.