US Treasury confirms Standard Chartered sanctions probe
The US Treasury on Wednesday, confirmed it was investigating Standard
Chartered Bank for violating Iran trade sanctions, as US media said
aggressive New York accusations against the bank had surprised and irked
federal regulators.
In a letter to the British Treasury obtained by AFP, Adam Szubin,
director of the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said
that his office “is investigating the bank for potential Iran-related
violations as well as a broader set of potential sanctions violations.”
Szubin told his British counterparts that the Treasury was coordinating
in the investigation with other US federal and state agencies, but would
not make any public comment on it until its conclusion.
It was the first official confirmation that the London-based global
bank was under scrutiny from US regulators for handling large transfers
by Iranian banks through its New York branch, possibly violating US
sanctions on Iran.
On Monday the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS)
publicly accused Standard Chartered of illegally laundering $250 billion
for Iranian banks over nearly 10 years, a move that US media said
surprised the DFS's federal counterparts at the Treasury, the Federal
Reserve, and the Department of Justice.
The New York state regulator's move, and threat to suspend Standard
Chartered's banking license in the US financial hub, was not endorsed by
the Justice Department, the Fed or the Treasury, the Times said.
While all three were involved in investigating the bank's handling of
US dollar transfers for state-owned Iranian banks, they differed on the
size of the wrongdoing, the newspaper said.
And they were upset that DFS head Benjamin Lawsky went ahead with
public accusations without them. “Before Monday, these authorities were
not expecting Mr. Lawsky to act,” the Times said, citing people close to
the case.
“In money laundering cases, authorities almost always move in
concert.
Lawsky's order against Standard Chartered irked many of the other
regulators, who questioned whether he had moved too quickly.” In his
letter, addressed to Tom Scholar, second permanent secretary at the
British Treasury, Szubin detailed US regulations on Iran-related
transfers and noted the US had already assessed some $2 billion in fines
against major foreign banks for violating them. |