Standard Chartered is alleged to have facilitated billions of dollars worth of transactions for Iran-linked entities, including funders of terrorist groups, according to fresh US court filings.
Documents submitted to a New York court on Friday claim the London-based bank carried out thousands of transactions worth more than $100bn between 2008 and 2013 in breach of US and international sanctions against Iran.
They include transactions worth $9.6bn with entities classed by the US government as funders of terrorist groups, including Hamas, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and the Taliban.
The two whistleblowers behind the allegations – including former Standard Chartered executive Julian Knight – are trying to reverse the dismissal of a case they filed in 2012 after uncovering previously undetected transactions in confidential bank spreadsheets they gave to the US authorities at that time.
US authorities successfully applied to have the case dismissed in 2019. The whistleblowers argue the government committed a “colossal fraud on this court by falsely denying” that the pair provided “previously unknown, damning evidence”.
Standard Chartered said the pair’s latest filing was “another attempt to use fabricated claims against the bank, following previous unsuccessful attempts”, adding: “We are confident the courts will reject these claims, as they have already done repeatedly.”
Despite being headquartered in London, Standard Chartered makes nearly all of its revenue in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, with hubs in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The bank had announced it would stop all new business with Iranian customers in 2007. While it has not admitted to facilitating transactions for terrorist groups, Standard Chartered did admit to violating sanctions against Iran and other nations in 2012 and 2019 and was hit with fines totalling nearly $2bn.
The newly alleged transactions include those with a Pakistani fertiliser company that allegedly sold explosive materials to the Taliban for use in roadside bombs against UK and US troops in Afghanistan.
Standard Chartered is also accused of facilitating transactions for a front company owned by Hezbollah financier Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi.
In February, the US Supreme Court declined to hear a civil lawsuit from the whistleblowers after it was dismissed by a lower court.
The FBI and US Department of Justice declined to comment on the latest allegations.