Standard Chartered bank illegally “schemed” with Iran to launder as much as $250bn (£161bn) for nearly a decade, a US regulator says.
The New York State Department of Financial Services said that the bank hid 60,000 secret transactions for “Iranian financial institutions” that were subject to US economic sanctions.
It labelled UK-based Standard Chartered a “rogue institution”.
The bank has been threatened with having its US banking licence revoked.
The allegations are far larger than those involving HSBC, which was recently accused by the US Senate of failing to prevent money laundering from countries around the world including Mexico and Iran. It has set aside $700m to deal with any fines and penalties arising from those allegations…
‘Obvious contempt’
Iran has been subject to US economic sanctions since 1979, and the laws were toughened by Executive Orders signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995 over US dollar transactions with Iran.
The US-dollar transactions in question originated and terminated in European banks in the UK and the Middle East, and were cleared through its New York branch, the complaint said.
Among the violations of the law, the bank is accused of:
- falsifying business records
- failing to maintain accurate books and records
- failing to report misconduct to the regulator in a timely manner
- evading Federal sanctions
In the 27-page complaint, the New York State Department of Financial Services said that Standard Chartered showed “obvious contempt for US banking regulations” and pointed to an email reply from a bank executive director to a New York branch officer.
“Who are you [Americans] to tell us, the rest of the world, that we’re not going to deal with Iranians,” the complaint quotes the director as saying.
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Link to the report from NY State department report: click here