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Canada: Sanctioned Iranian bank accused of funding Hamas and Hizballah allegedly wires millions into the country

Nov 26, 2020 4:00 pm By Christine Douglass-Williams 3 Comments

Alireza Onghaei, the owner of ONG Currency Exchange Inc., on Toronto’s Yonge Street is accused of funneling millions of dollars into Canada from Iran. Exactly how the transfers are being allocated isn’t yet known. However, it is likely that the Iranian regime is working to expand Iran’s influence via its proxies.

A CSIS spokesperson said the agency’s most recent public report “highlighted how Canadian communities can be subject to clandestine and deceptive manipulation by foreign states known as foreign interference.”

It is noteworthy that Onghaei’s company allegedly “transferred money to Canada from Bank Saderat, which is controlled by the Iranian state. The bank is the subject of Canadian sanctions, and the U.S. Treasury alleges Iran uses it to fund Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.”  Previous reports have revealed that Hezbollah’s external operations group, known as Unit 910, was “even more active in Canada than they were in the United States.” Unit 910 is also known as Islamic Jihad, or the Black Ops of Hezbollah.

In June 2019, Unit 910 sleeper agent Ali Kourani, who was based in the United States, “visited Pearson airport seven times and gathered information about security measures there until his arrest.” Hezbollah established many targets of surveillance all over North America. Kourani eventually informed the FBI “that in the event that the United States and Iran went to war, the U.S. sleeper cell would expect to be called upon to act. And if the United States were to take certain unnamed actions targeting Hezbollah, Nasrallah himself, or Iranian interests, Kourani added, ‘in those scenarios the sleeper cell would also be triggered into action.'” Hizballah was also “thinking about how to get terrorists, weapons, and contraband through airports, from Lebanon into Canada, from Lebanon into the United States.”

In an attempt to curb the “foreign activities” of Iran, in 2012 the former Conservative government of Canada shut down Iran’s embassy in Ottawa, so as to stymie its goal of establishing a fifth column in Canada using Iranian loyalists, with an ultimate ambition to attack the United States.

The Liberal government of Canada has done nothing to curb Iran’s “foreign activity,” and the Iranian regime is persistent. Toronto lawyer and human rights activist Kaveh Shahrooz states:

The Iranian regime tries several different things. On one level, it tries to intimidate activists so that they’ll stay silent.

This poses danger to Iranian dissidents, who should be safe in Canada. Shahrooz goes on:

On another level, I think it tries to influence our policy-makers by making it seem as if a lot of the members of our community want Canada to lift pressure on Iran…And I think it tries to also culturally influence Canadian society through events that seek to normalise the Iranian regime and the horrific human rights situation there.

So how will the Liberal government now respond to such serious interference (admissions included)? There is little likelihood that it will act. For one thing, a Liberal Member of Parliament, Majid Jowhari, has long been suspected of being an agent of the Iranian regime (which he denies), and has fought for Canada to reopen diplomatic relations with the regime. No government investigations have ensued, and there will likely be no investigation of Alireza Onghaei, either.

Jowhari, meanwhile, admits to meeting Onghaei, but denies any knowledge of his covert activity.

News about Iranian influence in Canada should be of paramount concern to all Canadians; it poses a direct danger to Iranian dissents living in Canada, and should be challenged by the opposition Conservatives.

“CSIS alleges Iran used Toronto company to wire millions to Canada despite sanctions,” by Stewart Bell and Sam Cooper, Global News, November 25, 2020:

A Toronto currency exchange business helped Iran secretly wire millions of dollars into Canada in violation of sanctions, according to a classified intelligence report that calls the financial transfers a threat to national security.

A Canadian Security Intelligence Service report obtained by Global News accuses Alireza Onghaei, the investor immigrant behind the company, of “assisting the government of Iran in the clandestine wiring of monies into Canada.”

The money was routed through Dubai in order to “circumvent sanctions,” CSIS wrote in its Dec. 20, 2019, report on Onghaei, the owner of ONG Currency Exchange Inc., on Toronto’s Yonge Street.

The total amount allegedly funneled into Canada from Iran was not known, but CSIS wrote that “we assess it to be in the millions.” One transfer alone was for $600,000, according to CSIS.

CSIS did not specify when the alleged transfers took place or what the money was used for, but wrote that its investigation was related to “foreign influenced activities … that are detrimental to the interests of Canada and are clandestine or deceptive.”

The report shows how Canadian intelligence officials suspect the Iranian regime has dodged international sanctions by passing money through the United Arab Emirates and using small currency exchange companies to move it to Canada.

The United Nations began imposing sanctions on Iran in 2006 in response to its nuclear program. Canada imposed additional sanctions in June 2010.

ONG Currency Exchange was registered as a Canadian money services business in January 2010.
Corporate records show the business was registered to Onghaei’s home address and he was the sole director. ONG offered “safe and secure” money transfers, according to its website.

The CSIS report alleged Onghaei’s company would transfer money to Canada from Bank Saderat, which is controlled by the Iranian state. The bank is the subject of Canadian sanctions, and the U.S. Treasury alleges Iran uses it to fund Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.

During an interview with CSIS on Nov. 27 and 28, 2019, Onghaei “admitted to having owned a private money exchange company that would transfer funds from Bank Saderat and other Iranian financial actors into Canada,” according to the intelligence report…..

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Filed Under: Canada, Iran, Sharia finance Tagged With: Alireza Onghaei, CSIS, Majid Jowhari, ONG Currency Exchange Inc., Toronto


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Comments

  1. Wellington says

    Nov 26, 2020 at 4:55 pm

    As bad as the father Trudeau was, the son is even worse.

    As an American, who wishes Canada well for its own sake, for America’s sake, for Western Civilization’s sake, I write this with no pleasure whatsoever. But the present Trudeau is an ongoing disaster in the making for my long respected neighbor to the north.

    Damn.

    Reply
  2. gravenimage says

    Nov 26, 2020 at 9:58 pm

    Canada: Sanctioned Iranian bank accused of funding Hamas and Hizballah allegedly wires millions into the country
    ………….

    This should not surprise. Will Canada shut them down?

    Reply
  3. Giacomo Latta says

    Nov 27, 2020 at 10:44 am

    There must be an ex-Iranian working for Global News because this is the second article critical of Iran and Canada’s interactions with it. I do not include the egregious mass murder of 57 Canadians by the paranoid Iranian theocracy. Trudeau has not held its feet to the fire. Perhaps it is part of his so-called restart.
    Canada has FINTRAC, similar to the OCC of the USA. I trust Trudeau does not have any former university friends working there.

    Reply

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