March 16, 2018
A federal judge has ruled that the Boeing Company must show its contract with Iran to American “victims of terrorism” who are trying to find and seize Iranian state assets located in the United States.
They are seeking to collect on a longstanding, $67-million civil judgment against Iran.
Chief US District Judge Ruben Castillo in Chicago ordered Boeing to turn over to the terror-attack victims details of its $16 billion contract with Iran Air to buy 80 commercial planes.
Castillo’s ruling, posted in the court docket last Tuesday, rejects Boeing’s contention that providing the contract details to the victims could not only undermine the mega-contract with Iran Air, but could jeopardize the nuclear deal that authorized the sales.
Castillo said the Trump Administration, in a letter to the court, declined to support Boeing. The letter, dated February 2, declined to take a position on whether or not the judge should force Boeing to disclose the details of the contract.
US Rep. Peter Roskam, an Illinois Republican, released a statement Thursday praising Castillo’s ruling, saying it is “indicative of the risks of doing business with the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism.”
The relatives of 7-year-old Naomi Leibovitch are suing. She was killed by members of the Palestine Islamic Jihad — which the US State Department has described as an Iranian-funded terrorist organization — when they fired on the Leibovitches as they traveled on a highway near Jerusalem.
The plaintiffs want to go through the contract to help determine what Iranian assets they might be able to access and seize to fulfill the $67 million judgment.
Boeing has said that the sale has been delayed because Iran has so far failed to make any of the advance payments required, so there isn’t likely to be any Iranian money in Boeing’s hands.
More importantly, however, Boeing knows full well of the efforts by “victims of terrorism” to seize funds and probably designed some payment system—which would be outlined in the contract—to keep Iranian payments outside the United States and beyond the reach of anyone.
Boeing would undoubtedly prefer to keep those arrangements secret to avoid the public embarrassment.
This Judge Castillo is the same judge who handled a case against Donald Trump and was insulted by Trump during the campaign because of his Mexican heritage.