A British bank, Standard Chartered, is accused in US court papers of facilitating billions of dollars in transactions for funders of terrorist groups.
The bank allegedly conducted thousands of transactions worth over $100 billion from 2008 to 2013, breaching US sanctions against Iran.
An independent expert identified $9.6 billion in foreign exchange transactions involving individuals and companies designated by the US government as funding groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban.
The bank denies the allegations, claiming that previous accusations were “thoroughly discredited” by US authorities.
However, the bank has admitted to breaching sanctions twice—in 2012 and 2019—resulting in over $1.7 billion in fines. It has not admitted to conducting transactions for terrorist organizations.
Court filings reveal that Standard Chartered allegedly falsified transaction data on Swift, an international payment system, to move billions of dollars through its New York branch for sanctioned entities, including the Central Bank of Iran.
In September 2012, then UK Chancellor George Osborne intervened on the bank’s behalf, and three months later, the US Department of Justice decided not to prosecute the bank.
Newly filed documents show that between 2008 and 2013, Standard Chartered processed numerous transactions for Iranian banks and Middle Eastern money exchanges linked to designated terrorist organizations.
This contradicts previous government claims that no improper transactions occurred after 2007.
The transactions include dealings with a Pakistani fertilizer company known for supplying materials to the Taliban and a Gambian front company tied to a Hezbollah financier.
Daniel Alter, former general counsel at the New York Department of Financial Services, called the new disclosures “shocking” and “exponentially worse” than the bank’s 2012 admissions.
He stated that the connections to terrorist organizations were not apparent in the initial data.
In 2019, Standard Chartered agreed to another deferred prosecution agreement and paid a further $1.1 billion in fines for transactions between 2007 and 2011.
Source-BBC
