Standard Chartered share price falls 16%, wiping £6BILLION from its value, after claims the UK bank laundered billions for Iran and Hezbollah
- Standard Chartered is accused of conspiring with Iran for a decade
- New York State Department of Financial Services called the bank a ‘rogue institution’ and said the bank’s Iran affairs had been a threat to global peace
- Sixty thousand financial transactions were cited as suspicious
- Investigation quoted London-based executive saying: ‘You f***ing Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we’re not going to deal with Iranians?’
By JAMES SALMON
Standard Chartered: The bank is accused of hiding £160billion which helped fund terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas as well as Iran’s nuclear programme
Regulators in New York said it was a ‘rogue institution’ that broke sanctions imposed on Iran and put profits ahead of global security and the law.
It worked with three Iranian banks suspected of being used by Tehran to finance its weapons programmes, according to an explosive report.
US authorities suspect the Iranian banks also funded terrorist and militant groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The New York State Department of Financial Services accused Standard Chartered of doing business with Burma, Libya and Sudan, which are also under sanctions.
It said the London-based bank, which has 87,000 global staff with 2,000 of them in London, had shown ‘obvious contempt’ for US financial regulations.
