An Iranian national the US accused of being an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – Qods Force (IRGC-QF) official owns two companies in Lebanon, information not revealed publicly before.



The Beirut-based Hasan Dehghan Ebrahimi was sanctioned by the US Treasury in February 2017 for his alleged role in “a key IRGC-QF-run support network working” with Hezbollah.



The US said at the time that Ebrahimi had been using Lebanese companies “with ties to the broader Middle East to transfer funds, launder money, and conduct business.”



While the US designated a firm managed by Ebrahimi as well as three others controlled by one of his associates, the sanctions package did not include companies owned by Ebrahimi.



Lebanese corporate records reviewed by Levant Networks shows that Ebrahimi, who Washington says “maintains direct ties to senior IRGC-QF officials in Tehran,” owns nearly all the shares in Century Telecom Off Shore SAL.



Registered in 2011 to an address in the Zaarour Center in southern Beirut, Century Telecom SAL Off Shore SAL has a minimal public footprint. Ebrahimi’s firm joined TM Forum — an international association of telecom sector companies — in 2013 before withdrawing from the industry association sometime before the summer of 2015.



Ebrahimi is also the co-owner of Beirut-based Finance & Help SAL Offshore, which according to Lebanon’s online corporate register has a branch in Iraq. Ebrahimi is listed as the general manager of the firm, while another Iranian national, Fahranaz Kakoulaki, serves as its chairperson.

Ebrahimi is not the only member of Iran’s elite IRGC – Qods force to have had commercial interests in Lebanon. Earlier in January, Levant Networks revealed that Major General Hassan Shateri — assassinated by Israel in 2013 — founded a mysterious company in an eastern suburb of Beirut.