Liverpool sponsor to pay extra $327m in fines
Scandal-hit Standard Chartered will pay a further $327m (€252.9m) to settle allegations that it breached sanctions with Iran.
The bank was accused by regulators in August of exposing the United States to terrorists and drug kingpins by hiding $250bn (€193.35bn) of transactions with Tehran.
The bank has already paid $340m (€262.9m) to New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS) to settle the claims.
In the latest settlements it will pay $100m (€77.3m) to the US Federal Reserve and $227m (€175.5m) to the US Justice Department and the New York District Attorney.
Standard, which employs nearly 90,000 people worldwide and sponsors Liverpool Football Club, was initially threatened with losing its licence to operate within New York state.
In an explosive legal order, DFS superintendent Benjamin Lawsky said: “In short, Standard Chartered Bank operated as a rogue institution.”
Standard, between January 2001 and 2010, moved 60,000 transactions through its New York branch that were subject to US economic sanctions, and then covered up the dealings, the financial watchdog claimed.
Institutions included the Central Bank of Iran as well as Bank Saderat and Bank Melli, both of which are also Iranian state-owned.
The US suspects that the Gulf state was using its banks to finance “terrorist groups” such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Findings include a memo sent in October 2006 from the bank’s US chief executive to the group executive director in London, raising concerns about the activities with Iran.
The watchdog, which reviewed 30,000 pages of documents during the investigation, also uncovered evidence of apparently similar schemes at the bank with other US-sanctioned countries such as Libya, Burma and Sudan.
The bank has no UK branches but is headquartered in London, a key hub for its wholesale banking business.
