As a State Sponsor of Terrorism, Iran is a country with whom it should be extremely difficult – if not impossible – for banks to deal, let alone assist in acts of financing terrorism. However, according to a lawsuit filed by dozens of wounded veterans, that’s exactly what happened. As you read this, consider that law-abiding American citizens are put under extreme scrutiny relative to their financial transactions. If these claims are accurate, banks are aren’t just failing to hold a State Sponsor of Terrorism to the same standard; they’re helping that terror state murder Americans.
Another point worth noting is that the plaintiffs allege these banks have been facilitating Iran’s terrorist activities as far back as 1987. This is instantly relevant because in 2011, as Shoebat.com reported, U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels ruled that Iran was complicit in the 9/11 attacks.
WFB’s Adam Kredo writes:
More than 200 plaintiffs have signed onto the suit, which targets some of the largest international banks, including: HSBC Bank USA, Barclays, London’s Standard Chartered Bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Credit Suisse, and London-based Bank Saderat.
The veterans argue that the banks helped Iran illegally move “billions of dollars” to terrorist entities that later targeted U.S. troops in attacks.
The suit alleges these banks are knowingly acting as key cogs in Iran’s efforts to evade U.S. sanctions and provide “material support” to Hezbollah and other terror groups, which, at Tehran’s behest, have carried out attacks against U.S. interests in Iraq.
“Defendants’ unlawful conduct was purposefully directed at the United States, and the conspiracy was specifically designed to effectuate the flow of billions of U.S. dollars through the United States in violation of U.S. laws, and in fact resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars illegally passing through the United States,” plaintiffs argue in the complaint filed by New Jersey-based Osen & Associates.
The veterans and their families are seeking an unspecified amount of damages from the banks as a result of their alleged support for Iranian terrorism.
The complaint goes on to detail scores of terror attacks in Iraq backed by Iran committed between 2004 and 2007 that injured or killed those who have signed on to the lawsuit.
Those involved in the suit say that they are driven by a need to expose Iran’s terror activities and the complicity of the banks accused in the suit…
…The suit alleges that the international banks in question were “knowingly” part of a “conspiracy” by Iran to skirt international sanctions.
The banks “agreed to alter, falsify, or omit information from payment messages that involved Iran or Iranian parties,” including Iranian banks, the lawsuit claims. “Each of the defendants knowingly entered into an agreement with Iran and its agents.”
The banks engaged in this behavior for “the express purpose of concealing” Iran and its financial institutions from scrutiny by U.S. authorities, according to the suit.
This activity began around 1987 and “continues to the present,” despite ongoing sanctions against Iran, the suit alleges.
These plaintiffs may want to reach out to the plaintiffs in Havlish v. Islamic Republic of Iran, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, et. al. Since a federal judge ruled Iran was complicit in the 9/11 attacks, perhaps the banks are as well, especially if they are alleged to have already been aiding Iran for 14 years at that the time of the attacks.