Other militant groups in the region claimed responsibility for some of the attacks and may have been responsible, lawyers for the bank said in questioning the witnesses. Hamas was designated a terrorist group by the U.S. in 1997. Arieh Spitzen, the former head of the Israeli military’s Department of Palestinian Affairs, told jurors in August that the bank transferred about $4 million from 2000 to 2001 to as many as two dozen Hamas leaders and operatives through its New York branch. Spitzen said he was only able to review limited account information because the bank refused to hand over much of the data. The bank has argued it couldn’t supply more comprehensive information without violating criminal laws of Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. A federal judge ruled jurors could be told to infer from the bank’s failure to provide the information that it did business with terrorists, giving the plaintiffs a potential edge.
Supreme Court
Arab Bank fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to resist sanctions over its refusal to provide the account records to victims. In June, the high court rejected the bank’s appeal. Arab Bank Chairman Sabih Al Masri, testifying for the company, said the attacks “destroyed opportunities for peace” and denied ever hearing that the bank supported terrorism. Al Masri, who took over management of Arab Bank in 2012 after former Chairman Abdul Hamid Shoman resigned, told jurors his brother was killed by a terrorist and his own life had been threatened because a company he owns supplied food to U.S. troops in the Middle East. The bank said a verdict for the plaintiffs would “undermine” the compliance systems used by financial institutions throughout the world and would “create vast uncertainty and risk.” Founded in Jerusalem in 1930, the bank opened a branch in New York in 1982. In 2005, it agreed, without admitting wrongdoing, to pay a $24 million penalty to U.S. regulators over alleged failure to enact sufficient controls and adequately manage risks of money laundering and terrorist financing.
Inactive Branch
The branch is no longer considered active, according to the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation website. The bank said in a financial report that it converted the branch to a different form of office with limited operations.
The penalty was a “great disappointment to Arab Bank,” Bishara said in a 2005 statement. He said the bank agreed to pay the penalty “in order to put this matter behind us.” (Bloomberg) [eap_ad_3]