Jammal
Trust Bank of
Lebanon Is Hit
With US
Sanctions And
Pompeo Speaks
After Earlier
Lawsuit in
EDNY
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC
Video
SDNY & UN
GATE, August 29 – Back on
January 8 while reporting from
the U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New
York Inner City Press noted
that Riad Salameh,
Governor of the Banque
Centrale du Liban (BDL), said
that a civil lawsuit by
approximately 1,200 plaintiffs
has been brought against 11
Lebanese banks for assisting
Hezbollah. The plaintiffs, all
US citizens, filed the lawsuit
in court in New York. The
defendants in the lawsuit
include the following banks,
including now sanctioned Jammal
Trust Bank and
Bank
Audi 2. Bank of Beirut 3. Bank
of Beirut And The Arab
Countries (BBAC) 4.
Banque Libano-Française
(BLF) 5. BLOM Bank
6. Byblos Bank 7.
Fransabank... 9. Lebanon
And Gulf Bank (LGB) 10. Middle
East Africa Bank (MEAB) 11.
SGBL.
Now on
August 29 the US has hit
Jammal Trust Bank with
sanctions over alleged support
of Hezbollah, senior
administration official said
on a White House conference
call. One of the officials
said that Jammal Trust Bank
knowingly provided support to
Hezbollah. "It's role as
Hezbollah's bank of choice is
prominent... Jammal Trust has
knowingly provided financial
services to Hezbollah's
financial counsel and U.S.
entities affiliated with
Hezbollah."
After the
call, US Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo said, "The U.S.
Department of the Treasury’s
Office of Foreign Assets
Control sanctioned today
Lebanon-based Jammal Trust
Bank SAL (Jammal Trust) for
supporting Hizballah’s illicit
financial and banking
activities. Jammal Trust
has a longstanding
relationship with a key
Hizballah financial entity and
provides financial services to
the Martyrs Foundation and
companies controlled by
Hizballah’s Executive
Council. Jammal Trust’s
misconduct undermines the
integrity of the Lebanese
financial system.
Today’s designation reflects
our determination to counter
Hizballah’s terrorist and
illicit activities in
Lebanon. We will
continue to target individuals
and entities involved in
financing and providing
support to Hizballah while
working closely with the
Central Bank of Lebanon and
other Lebanese institutions
which work to preserve the
integrity and stability of
Lebanon’s banking system."
We'll have more on this,
including if and how it
impacts the civil case.
The
multi-bank civil action was
brought on January 1 2019,
under the Anti Terrorism Act
by American nationals who were
injured, and by the estates
and families of American
nationals who were killed or
injured, by reason of acts of
international terrorism in
Iraq between 2004 and 2011
that were committed, planned
or authorized by the United
States designated Foreign
Terrorist Organization... The
EDNY case involves Mozambique
and its former finance minster
working with Credit Suisse, a
member of Guterres' UN Global
Compact, to defraud the people
of that country. Three former
Credit Suisse bankers were
arrested in London yesterday
on US charges that they took
part in a fraud scheme
involving US$2 billion in
loans to state-owned companies
in Mozambique: Andrew Pearse,
49; Surjan Singh, 44; and
Detelina Subeva, 37. The three
were charged in an indictment
in the EDNY Brooklyn,
New York federal court with
conspiring to violate the FCPA
and to commit money laundering
and securities fraud,
according to spokesperson John
Marzulli. Former Mozambique
Finance Minister Manuel Chang
was arrested in South Africa
as part of the same criminal
case. A fifth man, Jean
Boustani, was arrested on
Wednesday at New York's John F
Kennedy Airport. Boustani is a
Lebanese citizen who worked
for an Abu Dhabi-based
contractor of the Mozambican
companies. "The indictment
alleges that the former
employees worked to defeat the
bank’s internal controls,
acted out of a motive of
personal profit, and sought to
hide these activities from the
bank," Credit Suisse said in a
statement. When the guarantees
were revealed in 2016, foreign
donors, including the
International Monetary Fund
(IMF), cut off support for
Mozambique. Inner City Press
inside the UN asked Mozambique
diplomats about it - until it
was without due process ousted
from the UN, which it has now
applied to reverse.
***
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