Ali Mohammed Kharroubi

Ali Mohammed Kharroubi was named in U.S. Treasury’s January 2011 designation of the Ayman Joumaa drug-trafficking and money-laundering network. Treasury said he owned Ellissa Holding, which controlled companies including a used-car subsidiary in Benin, and named him among people associated with designated money exchanges. In 2013, Treasury said it believed Hezbollah had replaced the designated Ellissa Exchange owner with Haitham Rmeiti as a facilitator for transfers of Hezbollah funds. That latter statement is an agency assessment, not an itemized account of Kharroubi’s transactions.

Identity and network record

Treasury named Kharroubi among individuals targeted for roles in three Lebanese money exchanges used by Joumaa’s organization to launder illicit proceeds. It identified him as the owner of Ellissa Holding, a designated holding company with subsidiaries in Lebanon, Benin and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 2011 release establishes the designation and ownership relationship; it does not specify the amount Kharroubi personally moved.

In a Section 311 announcement concerning Rmeiti and Halawi exchanges, Treasury said it believed Hezbollah had replaced U.S.-designated Ellissa Exchange owner Ali Kharroubi with Haitham Rmeiti of STE Rmeiti as a key facilitator for wiring and transferring Hezbollah funds. The language reports the agency’s belief about a change in facilitator. It does not establish that Kharroubi directed Joumaa’s cocaine operations or that every Ellissa business transaction financed Hezbollah.

The 2013 Treasury release also referred to a U.S. civil money-laundering and forfeiture action naming Ali Mohamed Kharroubi and Elissa Exchange among the alleged participants. A Justice Department announcement of the Lebanese Canadian Bank settlement stated that the civil case continued against other alleged participants after the bank and Hassan Ayash Exchange settled. Neither a civil allegation nor the 2011 designation should be described as Kharroubi’s criminal conviction.

Treasury said Ellissa Holding controlled nine companies in Lebanon, Benin and the Democratic Republic of Congo, identifying Ellissa Group SA in Benin as a used-car seller. Ownership of the holding company and a role in Ellissa Exchange are distinct relationships; the release does not allocate Joumaa’s network-wide monthly laundering estimate to Kharroubi personally.

Ownership and transaction roles

The amended LCB complaint named both Jamal Mohamad Kharoubi and Ali Mohammed Kharroubi as principal owners and controllers of Ellissa Holding. It distinguished the Sarafand exchange, the Cotonou car park owned by Ellissa Group SA and the shipping business. These are related entities with financial, sales and transport functions; their shared ownership does not make every company’s transfer a personal receipt by Ali Kharroubi.

Trading African Group

FinCEN alleged that Kharroubi directed Kassem Rmeiti to create Trading African Group, or TAG, in Benin in February 2011 to continue payments for U.S. cars after the earlier disruptions. It said former Ellissa employees worked at TAG by autumn 2011 and Rmeiti paid Kharroubi about 30–40 percent of TAG’s profits. The claimed percentage concerns a business-profit share paid to Kharroubi, not a measured share delivered to Hezbollah.

The finding attributed more than $1.7 million in payments to U.S. car dealers and exporters to TAG from March to October 2011. That total is distinct from its estimate of at least $1.7 million in Rmeiti services for Beninese and Lebanese clients from March 2011 to October 2012. FinCEN also dated the alleged replacement of Kharroubi by Haitham Rmeiti as a Hezbollah funds-transfer facilitator to December 2011. The records describe different payment populations and a separate change of facilitator.

Individual and company wires

The complaint’s ARZ Export table separately listed one $84,968 wire attributed to Ali Kharoubi, four Ellissa Exchange wires totaling $215,446 and 23 Ellissa Group wires totaling $1,327,474. The table covered records linked to purchasing or shipping used cars. Its separate originator rows should not be collapsed into an individual total for Kharroubi, nor treated as a ledger of his income or Hezbollah payments.

Responses and separate outcomes

Contemporary reporting carried denials from the exchange houses targeted in 2013. Halawi said it complied with Lebanese requirements and maintained client and source-of-funds documents, while Rmeiti rejected the accusation and challenged the evidence. These responses qualify the agencies’ account of the replacement financial channels; they are not admissions by the Ellissa businesses or Kharroubi.

LCB’s related case ended in a $102 million civil forfeiture, with the bank’s denial preserved in the agreement. The bank’s settlement and Hassan Ayash Exchange’s separate resolution did not settle every allegation against other participants. Treasury’s broader assessment that the Joumaa network benefited Hezbollah does not establish that every exchange-house payment was Hezbollah’s money.

Research interpretation

Noam Binstok, Orna Mizrahi and Esteban Klor’s May 2026 INSS analysis describes trade, currency exchange and informal settlement as interacting mechanisms. The model helps explain why ownership, commercial sales and financial intermediaries appear together in the Ellissa records. It does not allocate every company payment to its owner, establish the origin of every sale or determine the amount ultimately received by Hezbollah.

See also

• Hezbollah Business Affairs Component
• Lebanese Canadian Bank

References

Legal and sanctions status as of 18 September 2026.