US veterans sue banks for their support of terrorism

[hellheaven1987]

Wounded U.S. veterans and family members of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq sued five European banks on Monday, seeking to hold them responsible for shootings and roadside bombings because they allegedly processed Iranian money that paid for the attacks.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, named Barclays Plc, Credit Suisse Group AG, HSBC Holdings Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Standard Chartered.

Barclays, Credit Suisse, RBS and Standard Chartered declined to comment. HSBC did not respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit was brought under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act, a 1992 law that permits victims to bring private suits against alleged financiers of militant operations.

The lawsuit alleges the banks conspired with Iranian banks to mask wire transactions in order to evade U.S. sanctions. The Iranian banks then funneled more than $100 million to militant groups that operated in Iraq at Iran's direction, according to the suit.

The militant groups included a Shi'ite militia in Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah, as well as Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the suit says.

Source

All are European banks by the way.

So what now? It is quite obviously those veterans would lose the case, but it does bring the question what West should do about those banks who are doing business with the unfriendly force.

[removeduser_487563287433]

All are European banks by the way.

They're massive international institutions that are headquartered in Europe. The only bank on the list that is explicitly guilty of money laundering to Iran is Standard Chartered, which has been fined twice in the USA for doing so. In that event it was their Hong Kong and UAE branches that were actually engaged in the money laundering.

[O'Hea]

I do enjoy the irony that an individual human being who aids and abets terrorist organizations is liable to get thrown into Guantanamo with a sack over their head, but a major international organization that does it gets fined. I support the lawsuit even if only in protest to the spinelessness of our financial regulatory system.

[removeduser_487563287433]

I do enjoy the irony that an individual human being who aids and abets terrorist organizations is liable to get thrown into Guantanamo with a sack over their head, but a major international organization that does it gets fined. I support the lawsuit even if only in protest to the spinelessness of our financial regulatory system.

A combined $640m fine. It's not ironic at all - you don't want institutions doing this, so you need to make it disastrously unprofitable for them to do so. Imprisoning individuals doesn't remove that institution's profit incentive. Also they didn't fund terrorist groups they money laundered to Iran.

[O'Hea]

I'm looking to see how much money was involved in the laundering in order to get a grip on whether that's an appropriate amount or not. Evidently this was just one of the many cases HSBC was found guilty of, with $1.9bn in penalties. I still can't help but feel anger at the fact that no one is personally punished for blatantly criminal acts.

[removeduser_487563287433]

I'm looking to see how much money was involved in the laundering in order to get a grip on whether that's an appropriate amount or not. Evidently this was just one of the many cases HSBC was found guilty of, with $1.9bn in penalties. I still can't help but feel anger at the fact that no one is personally punished for blatantly criminal acts.

The USA alleges at least $250bn. The fine is only one component (and there may be more fines, as the federal agencies have not yet finished investigating the case, just the New York State agencies), SCB were also threatened with losing their US trading licence, which would have been the death of them as a large bank and eventually bought by a competitor.

Be angry if you like but personally punishing individuals would not only be extremely difficult (no individual has been identified of personal wrongdoing who wasn't punished, and individual bankers are routinely punished when they are - all major finance centres have dedicated police for exactly these sorts of crimes) but it'd be pointless in actually trying to stop the problem.

HSCB is an odd example to highlight, seeing as they've frozen Iranian assets even for buying food:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/0...0EZ0KE20140624

[Aikanár]

And back to the topic please.