The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked a court to dismiss allegations that it failed to properly investigate sanctions violations by Standard Chartered, a case that has drawn attention at the highest political levels in the United States.
The FTSE 100 bank previously settled sanctions violations cases with US authorities, paying $667 million in 2012 and $1.1 billion in 2019 to resolve allegations of breaches involving Iran and other countries.
However, whistleblowers Julian Knight and Robert Marcellus claim they provided documents to the US government in 2012 and 2013 indicating additional, undisclosed violations. They alleged that the government misled a US court by stating it had fully investigated their claims. After an earlier judgment rejected their case, the pair appealed.
In its filing on Thursday, the DOJ urged the appeals court to uphold the prior ruling, describing the whistleblowers’ allegations of government fraud as “entirely unfounded.”
The case has also been intertwined with US politics. Last week, former President Donald Trump criticized New York Attorney General Letitia James on his Truth Social platform for allegedly failing to act on the whistleblowers’ claims. Shortly after, Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik called for an investigation, causing Standard Chartered’s share price to drop sharply, wiping about 2 billion off its market value.
A Standard Chartered spokesperson said, “We are pleased and unsurprised by the DOJ’s filing, which...
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