Standard Chartered Accused of Facilitating Billions in Transactions for Terrorist Groups: US Court Documents

British bank Standard Chartered is facing serious allegations of facilitating billions of dollars in transactions for terrorist groups such as Hamas and al-Qaeda, according to new US court documents. Former Standard Chartered executive turned whistleblower Julian Knight has come forward with shocking claims that the bank was involved in “billions of dollars in banking transactions for Iran, numerous international terror groups, and front companies for those groups.”

The court documents filed in New York by Knight allege that from 2008 to 2013, Standard Chartered conducted thousands of transactions worth over $100 billion, violating sanctions against Iran. While the bank has admitted to breaching sanctions against Iran and other countries twice, once in 2012 and again in 2019, it has not admitted to conducting transactions for terrorist organizations.

In a twist of events, it was revealed that in 2012, the British bank managed to avoid prosecution for money laundering after then-Chancellor George Osborne reportedly intervened secretly. Three months later, the US Department of Justice chose not to prosecute the bank. However, Knight contends that the transactions conducted by SCB far exceeded those admitted to during the settlement of the criminal case in 2012, occurring well after the bank claimed to have ceased all Iranian operations in 2007.

An independent expert identified $9.6 billion of foreign exchange transactions with individuals and companies designated by the US government as funding terror groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban. The confidential bank spreadsheets that showed the transactions were handed to US authorities in 2012 by Knight and another whistleblower, who both claim that the US government agencies made false statements to a court to have their claim for a whistleblower’s reward dismissed.

Despite Standard Chartered disputing the claims put forward by the whistleblowers, an independent expert with decades of CIA experience has contradicted this, stating that over half a million “cloaked” transactions by SCB between 2008 and 2013 were easily recognizable using a simple technique.

These shocking revelations have raised serious concerns about the involvement of major financial institutions in facilitating transactions for terrorist organizations, and the need for stricter oversight and accountability in the banking sector.