Standard Chartered hid huge Iran trade - NY regulators

US: New York regulators on Monday accused Standard Chartered Bank of hiding $250 billion in transactions with Iranian banks for almost a decade in violation of US sanctions.

Branding the London-based global financial giant a “rogue bank,” state regulators said Standard Chartered systematically disguised foreign exchange deals with Iran in a breach of controls that potentially opened up the US banking system to terrorists and criminals.

New York's Department of Financial Services threatened the bank with fines and possible suspension of its license to operate in the state, hub of the US financial industry, in the latest US move against foreign banks trading with Tehran.

Standard Chartered was ordered to appear on August 15 “to explain these apparent violations of law and to demonstrate why SCB's license to operate in the State of New York should not be revoked.”

“For almost ten years, SCB schemed with the government of Iran and hid from regulators roughly 60,000 secret transactions, involving at least $250 billion,” it said.

The transactions mainly involved handling US dollar transfers for major state-owned Iranian banks, including the central bank, that fell under strict US government controls aimed at blocking finance for Tehran's alleged nuclear weapons program.

The regulator said Standard Chartered falsified transaction reports and obstructed oversight “in its evident zeal to make hundreds of millions of dollars at almost any cost.”

The transactions “left the US financial system vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes, and deprived law enforcement investigators of crucial information used to track all manner of criminal activity,” it said. AFP