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Alleged Hezbollah Financier Extradited to US on Sanctions Evasion Charges

Hezbollah fighters hold their group flags, as they parade during a rally to mark Jerusalem day, in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 14, 2023. (AP)
Hezbollah fighters hold their group flags, as they parade during a rally to mark Jerusalem day, in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 14, 2023. (AP)
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Alleged Hezbollah Financier Extradited to US on Sanctions Evasion Charges

Hezbollah fighters hold their group flags, as they parade during a rally to mark Jerusalem day, in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 14, 2023. (AP)
Hezbollah fighters hold their group flags, as they parade during a rally to mark Jerusalem day, in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 14, 2023. (AP)

A dual Lebanese-Belgian citizen accused by the United States of financing Lebanon's Hezbollah has been extradited from Romania and faced sanctions evasion and money laundering charges on Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court, prosecutors said.

Mohammad Bazzi, who Washington says has provided millions of dollars to Hezbollah, was arrested in February on charges of covertly selling real estate he owned in Michigan and transferring the funds abroad, violating US sanctions laws.

Bazzi was extradited on Tuesday, and pleaded not guilty in a Wednesday court hearing before US Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo, according to a spokesman for the US Attorney's office in Brooklyn. He was ordered detained pending trial.

The US Treasury Department placed Bazzi, 58, on its sanctions list in 2018 over his alleged ties to Hezbollah, which Washington considers a terrorist organization.

Lawyers for Bazzi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors in Brooklyn last week charged another alleged Hezbollah financier, Nazem Ahmad, with evading US sanctions by exporting hundreds of millions of dollars of diamonds and art.

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Russian Missile Kills Four, Injures Many More in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih 

Emergency personnel work in a destroyed building following a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine March 5, 2025. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Dnipropetrovsk region/Handout via Reuters) 
Emergency personnel work in a destroyed building following a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine March 5, 2025. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Dnipropetrovsk region/Handout via Reuters) 
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Russian Missile Kills Four, Injures Many More in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih 

Emergency personnel work in a destroyed building following a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine March 5, 2025. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Dnipropetrovsk region/Handout via Reuters) 
Emergency personnel work in a destroyed building following a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine March 5, 2025. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Dnipropetrovsk region/Handout via Reuters) 

A Russian missile struck a hotel in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih late on Wednesday, killing four people and injuring 31, with rescuers still searching on Thursday morning for anyone trapped in the rubble, officials said.

A group of humanitarian organization volunteers from Ukraine, the US and Britain had checked into the hotel just before the strike but survived after taking shelter quickly, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

"Unfortunately, four people were killed in the attack," he wrote on Telegram. "We must not pause in putting pressure on Russia to stop this war and terror against life."

Fourteen of the 31 injured in the strike were in a serious condition, said Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region.

Ukraine's Emergency Services, also posting on Telegram, said 19 people had been rescued from the site of the hotel.

They posted pictures of crews making their way through the rubble outside the floodlit five-storey building and clambering up and down ladders.

Smoke billowed from the top of the hotel and nearly all its windows appeared to have been blown out. A crane was deployed to reach upper levels.

In addition to the hotel, 14 apartment buildings, a post office and 12 shops were also damaged, the governor said.

The Ukrainian military said Russian forces launched two ballistic missiles and 112 drones at Ukraine overnight. Drones also struck energy infrastructure in the southern region of Odesa, injuring two people, the governor said.

In the northeastern city of Sumy, a drone attack killed one person and damaged a private enterprise's storage facility, according to the local prosecutors.

Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskiy's hometown, has been a frequent target since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.