The Economic Times - Bank Markazi, Iran's central bank, is preparing to file a motion in a New York federal court early in February asking for the release of about $2 billion of its frozen funds at Citigroup's Citibank unit, the Wall Street Journal said, citing attorneys for the bank.
A U.S. court froze the assets in 2008 after a group of victims sought the funds as partial payment for a $2.7 billion legal judgment made against Tehran for its alleged role in the 1983 Beirut bombing, the Journal said.
The bomb attacks against U.S. and French armed forces, in Lebanon for a peacekeeping operation, claimed nearly 300 lives.
The funds were deposited in Citibank by Luxembourg-based Clearstream Banking SA, the WSJ said.
Bank Markazi's lawyers cite the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act as safeguarding from seizure by litigants the holdings inside the U.S. of any foreign central bank, according to the newspaper.
"Bank Markazi will show that its property is immune from seizure," David Lindsey of Chaffetz Lindsey LLP, the law firm representing the Iranian central bank, told the WSJ.
Chaffetz Lindsey LLP could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.
