In December 2020, more than 1,200 American citizens, including individuals who were injured, as well as the families of American citizens who were killed or wounded in attacks in Iraq between 2004 and 2011, filed a civil lawsuit against 13 Lebanese banks, foremost among them SGBL, before the federal court in New York, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
The lawsuit argues that these attacks were carried out, planned, and authorized by Hezbollah, which is designated as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” under U.S. law, in coordination with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also designated as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization,” and its external arm, the Quds Force, which operates under the Revolutionary Guard.
The lawsuit, which spans more than 800 pages, regardless of the identities of its plaintiffs, has once again drawn attention to the financial role of Lebanon’s banking system within Hezbollah’s support network, as well as to the complex ties linking major banks, the Banque du Liban, and the Lebanese state. Particular focus has been placed on SGBL, whose board of directors is chaired by the prominent banker Antoun Sehnaoui.
According to the lawsuit, SGBL “provided assistance and support to, and conspired with, Hezbollah,” both before and after its acquisition of the assets and liabilities of the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) in 2011. It alleges that the bank “maintained accounts for more than 20 individuals and entities that auditors identified on their lists as being affiliated with Hezbollah.”
Most recently, in August 2025, the U.S. court rejected a motion by Jammal Trust Bank, one of the banks named as defendants in the case, to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds of foreign sovereign immunity. Earlier, in 2023, the court granted a motion filed by the plaintiffs seeking a compulsory order to produce documents, overriding the defendants’ objections related to foreign bank secrecy. The court also denied the defendants’ request for a protective order. Court records, therefore, show that the case remains active and ongoing.
In this context, Mohammad Moghabat, Founder & Director of SKI for Research and Consulting, speaking to Daraj in the framework of his work on anti-money-laundering, said: “The lawsuit filed against Lebanese banks, in the section specifically related to SGBL, presents a serious legal theory of accountability under US counterterrorism law. This is based on conduct attributed directly to SGBL itself, as stated throughout the lawsuit, and not merely as a result of its acquisition of the assets and liabilities of the Lebanese Canadian Bank.”
The complaint alleges that SGBL knowingly retained, transferred, or continued to manage accounts belonging to individuals and entities linked to Hezbollah, independently of the obligations of the Lebanese Canadian Bank. This point is legally significant because it places the bank in the position of a direct actor, rather than merely the legal successor of the Lebanese Canadian Bank. If these facts are proven, they could satisfy the requirement that the bank had general awareness of the nature of the entities it was serving, a key element in establishing liability for “aiding and abetting” under US law.
SGBL did not respond to Daraj’s questions by the time of publication.
In a separate context, Daraj had previously reported on August 12, 2025, that the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York decided to revive a lawsuit against SGBL filed by American families injured in rocket attacks carried out by Hezbollah against Israeli targets in 2006. The decision was issued by one of the most influential US courts in August 2025, following an earlier ruling by New York’s highest appellate court in 2024 that gave the green light for the case to proceed to trial.
The lawsuit is based on the principle of holding the bank, in which banker Antoun Sehnaoui holds a majority stake and serves as chairman of the board, legally liable for any claims or legal consequences arising from the Lebanese Canadian Bank, pursuant to the acquisition deal completed in 2011 under the supervision of the central bank and valued at the time at $600 million. The purchase took place after lawsuits had been filed against the Lebanese Canadian Bank for laundering money on behalf of Hezbollah.
The irony is that Sehnaoui, whose bank is accused in the lawsuit of “assisting, supporting, and conspiring with Hezbollah in its independent capacity, both before and after acquiring the assets and liabilities of the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB),” is the same individual who openly declares and boasts of his support for a U.S.-Israeli opera partnership at the Kennedy Center. In 2025, the Washington Jewish Week reported that Sehnaoui was the main financial backer of the “U.S.-Israeli Opera” initiative, a partnership between the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center and the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, with the support of the Washington Hebrew Congregation. According to the same newspaper, his adviser Hagar Chemali, a Lebanese-American and former White House communications adviser, described Sehnaoui as a wealthy Lebanese banker and film producer, chairman of the SGBL Group, and a Lebanese Christian and “staunch Zionist” who believes that Zionism and the existence of Israel are necessary to achieve peace and stability in Lebanon and the wider Levant, as well as a response to antisemitism worldwide.
Daniel Glaser, founder of the “U.S.-Israeli Opera” initiative, stated that “this initiative would not have been possible without the generous contribution of Antoun Sehnaoui,” according to the Jewish Times website. It is worth noting that Glaser previously served as an adviser to banker Antoun Sehnaoui at Lebanon’s SGBL Bank. He is also the Global Head of Forensic Services and Head of the Washington office at K2 Integrity, a firm contracted by the Banque du Liban in mid-2025, as revealed by a previous Daraj investigation.
In this context, Moghabat argues that “given the political activity undertaken in Washington by the chairman of the board of Lebanon’s SGBL Bank, marked by an absolute alignment with ‘Israel’ against ‘Hezbollah,’ it is necessary to shed light on the content of the lawsuit filed in New York in 2020 against several Lebanese banks, including SGBL itself. This is essential to clarify the alleged relationship between the bank and ‘Hezbollah,’ which may demonstrate that this alignment is merely temporary or opportunistic when viewed from the perspective of reforming Lebanon’s banking sector and the obligations incumbent on all banks. As reflected in media coverage of his activities, the chairman of SGBL appears to be pushing for the international community to focus solely on the issue of weapons, while sidelining the need for banking sector reform.”
At the Heart of the Allegations: A “System” That Never Changed
The documents attached to the lawsuit consider that Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL) was not merely the legal successor to the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB), which had previously been accused of money laundering on behalf of Hezbollah, but was also an active partner in the financial system that enabled the group to access the US and international financial system.
According to the text of the lawsuit, “SGBL provided assistance and support to, and conspired with, Hezbollah,” both before and after its acquisition of LCB’s assets and liabilities in 2011. Despite internal investigations and audits conducted by the Lebanese government at the time, “SGBL chose to maintain accounts for more than 20 individuals and entities identified by auditors on their lists as being affiliated with Hezbollah,” including, but not limited to, Mohammad Hussein Darwish, Ali Hussein Darwish, Mohammad Issam Abu Darwish, Mustafa Faisal Ahmad, and others, according to the lawsuit.
The allegations, therefore, go beyond the mere transfer of assets from one collapsed Lebanese bank to another. They speak instead of continuity in conduct and a structural relationship that enabled Hezbollah to continue operating within Lebanon’s financial sector.
The lawsuit further states that SGBL continued to service entities that constitute key financial pillars of Hezbollah’s regional activity, such as Halawi Exchange, Hassan Ayash Exchange, and Fantasy World, which were described as fronts for commercial and financial activities operating under the umbrella of Hezbollah’s “Business Affairs Center (BAC).”
It also notes that “many Hezbollah and Iranian government accounts held at the defendant LCB bank were not included in the Lebanese reports that inventoried suspicious accounts at the bank, and there is no indication that those (unlisted) accounts were closed by the defendant SGBL bank.”
According to the lawsuit, “in addition to the fact that defendant SGBL acquired LCB’s liabilities and became its legal successor for its actions and criminal conduct, and assisted the ‘system’ in concealing its tracks and containing the damage resulting from US regulatory actions against LCB, SGBL itself had long provided material support and assistance to Hezbollah.” The lawsuit adds that “SGBL was fully aware that it was maintaining accounts and providing financial services to Hezbollah’s Martyrs Foundation through Atlas Holding SAL, the commercial arm of the Martyrs Foundation,” and that, “independently of the acquisition, SGBL knowingly maintained accounts and provided financial services to Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association, affiliated with Hezbollah.”
It further states that the bank knowingly maintained accounts and provided financial services to Inmaa Engineering and Contracting SARL (designated as an SDGT), Hezbollah’s main arm in construction and investment, headed by Adham Tabaja, and that it maintained accounts and provided financial services to Al-Saad Egg Trading Company, a firm owned and controlled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), independently of its acquisition of LCB’s liabilities.
While SGBL froze some accounts, particularly those linked to the drug-trafficking network run by Ayman Joumaa, it closed, rather than the accounts of several senior figures associated with the BAC (Hezbollah’s Business Affairs Center), including Mohammad Bazzi, Ali Sharrara, Nazem Ahmad, Saleh Assi, Hussein Issawi, Youssef Tajeddine, and Mohammad Hussein Darwish, according to the lawsuit. Among them were the sanctioned businessmen Saleh Assi and Nazem Ahmad, whom Daraj had previously interviewed while working on an investigation under the cross-border “Pandora Papers” project led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
A Daraj investigation reported that “the story of Ahmad being accused of serving as a key financier for Hezbollah began when his business started to flourish,” as he himself claimed, attributing the campaign against him to “Belgian intelligence reports” by pro-Israel figures. Ahmad told Daraj at the time: “They investigated me, and I was cleared of this case in Belgium. They accused me of financing Hezbollah and stirring sectarian tensions… It took years before the file was closed.” However, the closure of Ahmad’s case in Belgium did not prevent the accusations from continuing, particularly as his activity in the trade of high-value artworks expanded.
Saleh Assi, for his part, told Daraj at the time that his work was “legal” and transparent, and that he was being targeted either for political reasons or by competitors. Assi is a prominent name in the food trade in the Congo, where media reports point to his and his companies’ involvement in price-setting in the bread market, earning him the nickname “the king of bread,” as Daraj previously reported. Nevertheless, “sanctions were imposed on Saleh Assi on accusations that he was working on behalf of Adham Tabaja, and therefore Hezbollah.” Assi said: “These are fabrications. I want to prove my innocence of the charge of financing Hezbollah.”
Accordingly, regardless of the identity of the plaintiffs and the prosecution team, the lawsuit states that SGBL continued to support Hezbollah by circumventing US sanctions. At the same time, US media reports indicate that Sehnaoui supported American cultural institutions with Israeli links, such as Jewish Opera, and maintains close relations with former US envoy Morgan Ortagus, known for her pro-Israel positions.
It is worth noting that the court has accepted these allegations and is now in the evidence-review stage, underscoring the seriousness with which the court views the claims presented in the lawsuit.
“This section of the lawsuit is not a judicial ruling, but rather a gateway from allegations to facts. Determining whether SGBL, or any other bank in a similar position, will ultimately bear legal responsibility depends on internal decisions, compliance documents, and the level of knowledge at the time-matters that cannot be assessed until the completion of the expanded discovery phase,” Moghabat said.
