Osen LLC in the News
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wounded U.S. veterans and family members of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq sued five European banks on Monday, seeking to hold them responsible for shootings and roadside bombings because they allegedly processed Iranian money that paid for the attacks.
Barclays Plc (BARC) and HSBC Holdings Plc were among six banks sued by U.S. soldiers and their relatives over claims they helped Iran process billions of dollars in transactions and support terrorists who attacked them while serving in Iraq.
Lenders including Standard Chartered Bank (STAN), Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) and Royal Bank of Scotland NV allegedly conspired with Iran and its banks to withhold data from transactions, enabling them to circumvent monitoring by U.S. regulators, according to a complaint filed today in Brooklyn, New York, federal court. The scheme dates to 1987, the soldiers claim.
The families of dozens of American soldiers killed or wounded in Iraq are suing five international banks of conspiring with Iran to evade U.S. sanctions and provide material support to terrorist groups. They’re represented by lawyer Gary Oser, who recently won a jury verdict that found Arab Bank liable for 24 Hezbollah terrorist attacks in Israel.
As a federal jury debates whether Jordan’s largest bank provided assistance to Hamas, a New York federal appeals court reinstated a lawsuit filed by victims of the group against a UK bank.
The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that a federal district judge got it wrong when she threw out legal claims by about 200 U.S. victims of Hamas attacks who claimed that National Westminster Bank NWBD.LN +0.96% PLC provided banking services to a London-based charity with alleged ties to the group.
The lawsuit, which the Second Circuit sent back to federal trial court in Brooklyn, was filed under the Antiterrorism Act, a 1990 law that gives victims of international terrorism recourse in U.S. courts.
The ruling came as jurors in the same federal trial court were deliberating similar claims against Arab Bank PLC, which is accused by victims of Hamas attacks of routing compensation from Saudi donors to the families of suicide bombers and provided banking services to Hamas leaders and charities allegedly controlled by the group.
By denying certiorari last week in Linde v. Arab Bank, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for a terrorism finance case to begin trial on Aug. 11. About 300 U.S. citizens who were injured or lost a relative in the second Palestinian intifada allege that Arab Bank funneled "martyr payments" to families of suicide bombers, and they're seeking to hold Jordan's leading bank liable under the U.S. Antiterrorism Act. Is it possible the trial will really happen?
Hans Sachs left this earth without knowing what happened to his beloved poster collection. In 1898, when Sachs was a teenager, he began collecting posters in Berlin of advertisements, political propaganda and rare pieces of famed artists such as Cheret, Kandinsky and Lucian Bernhard. His passion for graphic art was so serious he amassed 12,500 posters and a separate collection of 18,000 tins, postcards and theater programs reflective of this art form.
Arab Bank Plc (ARBK), Jordan’s largest lender, lost a bid to avoid a U.S. trial in a lawsuit brought by terrorism victims who accuse it of supporting attacks in Israel. U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon in Brooklyn, New York, yesterday rejected the bank’s request to throw out the case, sending it toward trial. The victims claim in their lawsuit that Arab Bank, based in Amman, “knowingly and purposefully supported” foreign terrorist organizations from 1995 to 2004 by providing financial support to terrorists, including administering payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. The bank has denied wrongdoing.
It's been a rough few months for plaintiffs seeking to hold companies liable in U.S. courts for overseas violence, culminating with last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. restricting the reach of the Alien Tort Statute. But plaintiffs caught a break Wednesday in a lawsuit targeting Arab Bank over its alleged financing of the Palestinian group Hamas.
US Eastern District of New York Judge Nina Gershon will hold a key hearing on Wednesday in what could be the first terror financing case against a bank to go to trial in United States history. The potential blockbuster case against Arab Bank has already been featured on CBS’s Sunday Morning show and, in addition to setting significant and binding precedents, could have a “meaningful impact on banks” that finance terror groups “for profit because they are indifferent to just another customer and don’t care,” said lead litigator Gary Osen.
April 21, 2013 CBS Sunday Morning News broadcast aired a news story on Arab Bank financing Martyrs.
