Shares of UK bank Standard Chartered (STAN) fell on Tuesday, reaching a decline in value of almost 3% before recovering at the end of the day to register an overall fall of 0.46%.
Standard Chartered Hit by Fresh Court Allegations
The share price issues came after new allegations that STAN carried out transactions that violated international sanctions. This twist in the case came to light when new court documents were filed in the US alleging the bank allowed transactions worth billions of dollars for known terrorist groups such as al-Qaida and the Taliban, as well as Iran.
A group of whistle-blowers are trying to get the case reopened with what they claim is new evidence that American and international sanctions were ignored. Among this group is former Standard Chartered executive Julian Knight. A total of $1bn has been identified by the group as being transacted by the bank for clients with links to Iran.
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The bank has responded by stating that these are false allegations and that the claims have been fabricated. This follows similar claims partially dealt with in 2012 when the British government stepped in to help the bank avoid prosecution in the US. However, the controversy has never gone away, and Standard Chartered has been involved in legal battles since then.
This time, the whistle-blowers state that the American government was responsible for failing to investigate the alleged sanction violations thoroughly. The court document that has recently been filed in New York states that the UK bank:
Facilitated many billions of dollars in banking transactions for Iran, numerous international terror groups, and the front companies for those groups.
