February 14-2014
A European financial institution agreed last month to pay the United States $152 million as a fine for clandestinely trying to help Iran evade US sanctions.
Clearstream Banking became at least the 13th financial institution to make payments to the United States for helping Iran get around sanctions. The fines now total more than $5.5 billion.
The largest such payment was $1.921 billion made by HSBC in December 2012.
In Clearstream’s case, the violations date back to 2007. Others went back even further.
The first banks throttled by the US Treasury for such violations were Lloyds TSB Bank and Credit Suisse, who together paid up $1.1 billion in December 2009.
The long list of financial institutions caught by the United States seems to have made financial institutions very leery of dealing with Iran and thus the more recent and tougher sanctions have been easier for the US to enforce.
In Clearstream’s case, Treasury said it allowed the Central Bank of Iran to maintain an account in its New York office that held ownership interests in 26 different securities with a combined value exceeding $2.8 billion.
Treasury said Clearstream then transferred to Iran the interest and dividends the Central Bank earned on those holdings, another violation of sanctions.
Treasury said its officials met with Clearstream in late 2007 to warn it of its violations. Treasury said Clearstream pledged to sever its ties with Iran, but actually just moved the securities to a European Bank’s newly opened account. The ownership of record was changed, but not the actual ownership, Treasury said.