Arab News, Saturday, Aug 29, 2020 | Muharram 10, 1442
Bahrain fines Iranian banks implicated in money laundering
Bahrain: Bahrain’s High Criminal Court sentenced three Future
Bank officials to five years in prison each and to $1 million fines on Thursday,
in the latest of a series of money-laundering cases by the Central Bank of Iran
and other banks, the Bahrain News Agency reported.
The court also sentenced the Central Bank of Iran and the other banks implicated
in the wide money-laundering scheme to fines of $1 million each, General
Advocate Nayef Youssef Mahmood said.
The total of fines imposed on the Iran Central Bank, other Iranian banks and the
three Future Bank officials in seven cases reached $47 million. The court also
ordered the confiscation of the illegally transferred money amounting to $13
million.
The Public Prosecution had previously announced that its investigations had
revealed that the Central Bank of Iran planned to launder billions of dollars
through the Future Bank that was established in Bahrain and controlled by two
Iranian banks, Bank Melli Iran and Bank Saderat Iran, to pass suspicious
financial transactions in favor of Iranian entities, mainly the Central Bank of
Iran, in violation of laws and regulations.
The Future Bank received requests for suspicious financial transfers in favor of
the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks through the "SWIFT" system
without reporting them, setting aside their sums or checking their legitimacy in
an effort conceal the identity of the Iranian bank. The scheme allowed the bank
to make the transfers in violation of laws and regulations.