Bank of China

"Lawyers acting for terrorism victims in a US court case that accuses the Bank of China of helping Iranian-backed militant groups to fund their operations say they have identified a new witness who will bolster their case, which has been hindered by the Israeli government’s reluctance to embarrass Beijing. Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an Israeli attorney representing 22 families of terror victims said that the claimants’ lawyers planned to subpoena Stuart Levey, a former US Treasury official they believe warned the Bank of China in 2007 about accounts linked to Islamic Jihad and Hamas…

Bank of China declined to comment. The state-controlled bank is China’s fourth-largest by assets, and like all major financial institutions in the country, its top executives are appointed by the Communist party." (Financial Times, "Terror victims find witness in case against Bank of China," 11/11/13) (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/053be8bc-4aae-11e3-8c4c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2kdqtwmqJ)

Bank of China has a New York Branch Website. (http://www.bocusa.com/portal)

The victims’ lawyers were alerted to Mr Levey by a leaked US diplomatic cable published by the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks detailing meetings in 2007 between the former US official, who was then Treasury undersecretary, and Chinese banks and regulators – including Bank of China – in which he warned them of the 'increasing risk posed by Iran to the Chinese financial system'…Lawyers bringing the litigation in federal and state court in New York allege that Bank of China accounts in Guangzhou, southern China, were used by Hamas to wire money from the militant group’s headquarters in Syria and Jordan to Beijing. There, they claim, money was taken out of the account and sent to Hamas’s stronghold in the Gaza Strip either in a wire transfer or merchandise that was later sold to help the group’s operations. The victims’ lawyers claim that accounts held in the Bank of China were used to transfer assets, mostly merchandise, to Islamic Jihad…

The lawyers are seeking damages for relatives of victims of a 2008 shooting at a Jerusalem rabbinical seminary at which eight people were killed; a 2007 suicide bombing at a bakery in Eilat that left three dead; and people killed or injured by Qassam missiles fired from Gaza into southern Israel over a period of four years. According to the WikiLeaks cable, Mr Levey met Xiao Gang, Bank of China’s chief executive. The US then-official said that all financial transactions with Iran were “high risk” and required 'extraordinary due diligence.' According to the leaked cable, Mr Levey told Mr Xiao: 'We think Iran is trying to misuse your bank,' and passed the Chinese chief executive information regarding specific transactions involving his bank and companies associated with the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps. The cable quotes Geng Wei, the Chinese bank’s chief compliance officer as saying: 'On Iran, like North Korea, we cannot ignore the risk.'

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