From the New York Post:
Families from around the globe have filed suit in Brooklyn federal court against several banks they say funded terrorism that killed their loved ones.
Three separate lawsuits filed Tuesday and Wednesday claim Lebanon’s Blom Bank, the Palestine Investment Bank and the Bank of Palestine maintained accounts for various branches of Hamas and other terrorist organizations, and that those funds were then used to murder innocents.
Among more than 100 plaintiffs are Eugene Goldstein, whose son Howard Goldstein was killed by Hamas gunmen while driving through Israel to attend his own son’s wedding in June 2003.
Another plaintiff, New Jersey native Moses Strauss, was riding on a bus in Jerusalem in 2003 when a Hamas suicide bomber on board the bus set off his vest. Twenty-three people were killed.
The lawsuits, which accuse the banks of aiding and abetting a terrorist organization, are suing for unspecified damages.
The Palestinian Money Authority has just issued this statement:
The Governor of Palestine Monetary Authority has been aware of recently filed civil litigation in the United States against 3 banks operating in Palestine which are Cairo Amman Bank, Bank of Palestine and Palestine Investment Bank. The Governor expressed his confidence that the lawsuits do not have any factual or legal basis. The Governor noted that all banks operating in Palestine are safe and sound institutions that are cornerstones of the Palestinian economy. Further, the banks will continue to be committed to compliance with laws and international best practices to counter money laundering and terror financing.
The Cairo Amman Bank annual report in 2015 discussed its efforts to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, but that department seems to have only been created after 2007 in response to the threat of lawsuits. The terror attacks that precipitated the lawsuits in the US all occurred beforehand.
The US General Accounting Office seems to have concluded in 2013 that the Cairo Amman Bank and Bank of Palestine both adhere to anti-money laundering rules, clearing the way for the US to provide funds to specific programs in the West Bank. Again, this was many years after the events mentioned in the lawsuit.
In 2004, Israeli forces seized over $6 million from terror-linked accounts in several banks in Ramallah, representing hundreds of accounts. Many of these were payments not for “martyrs” or prisoners but direct payments to terrorists who planned deadly attacks.
The senior security official said interrogations of arrested militants showed that an attack might bring its Palestinian planners a minimum of 3,000 to 5,000 shekels, or $673 to $1,122. He also said Israeli intelligence indicated that much of the seized money had come from Iran, funneled through the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah.
Al Arabiya says that banks in Iran, Bank Saderat and Bank Saderat Iran, were sued as well for supporting Hezbollah terror attacks. It links to the same New York Post article, which at this time does not mention the Iranian banks.
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