Terror organization: Hezbollah;

Status: Since 2018, Nazem Said Ahmad’s daughter, Hind Ahmad, has brokered deals on behalf of her father, as well as coordinating the creation of an alias to help her father evade sanctions and purchase artwork from U.S. companies; Hind Ahmad directly owns and operates two galleries, Artual Gallery in Beirut, Lebanon;

Role: This network facilitated the payment, shipment, and delivery of cash, diamonds, precious gems, art, and luxury goods for the benefit of Hizballah financier and Specially Designated Global Terrorist Nazem Said Ahmad, who was designated on December 13, 2019, for providing material support to Hizballah;

Location: Lebanon;

Known also as: THE ART GALLERY; (Arabic: “معرض الفني”);

Address: Eden Garden Building, Ground Floor, Fawzi Al Daouk Street, Beirut, Lebanon; Wazir Building, 1st Floor, Ahmad Soloh Street, Jnah, Beirut, Lebanon; Property No. 3673, 1st Floor, Ahmed Saleh Street, Msaytbeh, Beirut, Lebanon;

Website: www.artual.co;

Organization Established Date: 20 Mar 2018;

Registration Number: 3427220 (Lebanon); 1024026 (Lebanon);

Activities:
Since 2018, Nazem Said Ahmad’s daughter, Hind Ahmad, has brokered deals on behalf of her father, as well as coordinating the creation of an alias to help her father evade sanctions and purchase artwork from U.S. companies. Hind Ahmad also acted as a broker for the sale of art in the ultimate beneficial interest of her father, including approaching witting and unwitting studios and galleries to change the provenance line of certain pieces to make their onward sale more attractive to prospective buyers. Hind Ahmad directly owns and operates two galleries, Artual Gallery in Beirut, Lebanon and DIDA in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. She is also indirectly associated with several other galleries but has obfuscated her connections to these entities to insulate them from the impact of her father’s designation.

Rima Baker is the majority shareholder of Beirut-based Park Ventures SAL and a Beirut-based real estate company Debbiye 383 SAL. Park Ventures SAL handled the shipping and logistics of importing millions of dollars of art from U.S. and foreign art galleries into Beirut, and circumvented U.S. sanctions through a proxy ownership structure that purposefully registered shares of the company in the names of Rima Baker and Hind Ahmad

Hind Ahmad’s husband, French-Senegalese national Da’ud El Riz, facilitated the acquisitions by his wife and conducted personal and professional business transactions for the benefit of his wife and her galleries. Several of these transactions were the subjects of a scheme to undervalue invoices in a manner that would allow the network to circumvent taxes and duties levied on high-value imports by the Lebanese government

Mohamad Hijazi also coordinated with Hind Ahmad to create an alias to facilitate the purchase of artwork from U.S. companies, and his identification was used to circumvent UK anti-money laundering procedures covering transactions related to the purchase of a work of art from a London-based gallery in the interest of Nazem Said Ahmad

Ali Mossalem also coordinated with Hind Ahmad regarding the creation of false invoices for pieces of artwork on behalf of Nazem Said Ahmad and conspired to draw up false invoices under the name of Rami Baker or United Investment Group SAL

Firas Ahmad is designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Nazem Said Ahmad

This network facilitated the payment, shipment, and delivery of cash, diamonds, precious gems, art, and luxury goods for the benefit of Hizballah financier and Specially Designated Global Terrorist Nazem Said Ahmad, who was designated on December 13, 2019, for providing material support to Hizballah