LONDON: Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.'s unit National Westminster Bank has been charged with acting as a conduit to provide funds to Palestinian terrorists. A lawsuit filed in the Federal District Court in Brooklyn, New York, by 14 victims of terrorism and their families, alleges that London-based charity organisation Interpal had chanelled funds in millions of dollars to Palestinian terrorists through accounts maintained in the National Westminster Bank, which became part of the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2000.
The bank is alleged to have transferred the money to Hamas, a Palestinian organisation, declared a terror outfit by Israel and the United States. Interpal itself has been declared an unlawful organisation by Israel in 1997 and the U.S. had described it as a "specifically designated global terrorist" in 2003. Hamas had claimed responsibility for all the attacks on the plaintiffs between March 2002 and the following August. And the plaintiffs say Interpal is the biggest fund-raiser in Europe for Hamas.
The Charity Commission, the regulator in England and Wales, had carried out investigations against Interpal in 1996 and again in 2003 and had cleared it of any misdeeds. There are no pending investigations against it now.
Chairman of Interpal Ibrahim Hewitt contended that Interpal operates under the supervision of the Charity Commission and in accordance with the laws of the U.K. The organisation describes itself as a "non-political, non-profit making British charity that focuses solely on the provision of relief and development aid to the poor and needy of Palestine".
The Royal Bank of Scotland described the allegations as without merit. A bank spokesperson said it will file documents in the U.S. federal court seeking dismissal of all the charges.
Another Israeli victim of a terror attack is suing French bank Credit Lyonnais in New Jersey on similar charges.
British laws require that all firms in the country report any suspicious transactions to the City regulator, the Financial Services Authority. Banks are required to identify the beneficiaries too.
Earlier this year, HSBC had ordered an internal enquiry based on a US intelligence report, which said Saddam Hussein had passed money through the bank's Jordan branch to bypass United Nations trade sanctions.
Posted
on : Sun, 08 Jan 2006 02:05 GMT | Banking News
By : Mike Lawson
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