NEW YORK (AFP) — Standard Chartered Bank was accused Monday by New York state regulators of hiding $250 billion in allegedly illegal transactions with Iran over nearly 10 years.
The London-based global bank was threatened with possible suspension of its license to operate in New York, the hub of the US financial industry, if it could not explain the transactions which allegedly violate US sanctions on Iran.
The transactions "left the US financial system vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes, and deprived law enforcement investigators of crucial information used to track all manner of criminal activity," New York state's Department of Financial Services said. Standard Chartered was ordered to appear before the department on August 15 "to explain these apparent violations of law and to demonstrate why SCB's license to operate in the State of New York should not be revoked."
The department said the bank also faces possible assessment of fines over the activity, which also included evidence of possible illegal transactions with Libya, Myanmar and Sudan while those countries were under US sanctions.
