Padangekspres.net- the country's third largest lender by assets, Thursday rejected accusations it provided banking services to terrorist groups.
The families of eight Israeli high-school students killed in a March 2008 shooting in Jerusalem filed a lawsuit against the bank alleging that starting in 2003 it made dozens of wire transfers, totaling several million dollars, for the Palestinian group Hamas.
In a statement on its website, Bank of China called the accusations groundless.
"Bank of China has always complied with United Nations' regulations against money laundering and financing for terrorism, as well as relevant regulations and oversight in China and other jurisdictions," the bank said. "It strictly prohibits any form of financial services for any terrorist organization."
Bank of China added that it has yet to receive any documents of litigation related to the reported lawsuit. The statement didn't elaborate further.
According to the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in New York state court, the dollar transfers were initiated by Hamas leadership in Iran and Syria, processed through Bank of China's U.S. branches and sent on to a Bank of China account that was linked to a senior officer and agent of Hamas and the Palestine Islamic Jihad.
The transferred funds, the suit says, were later used by Hamas and other groups in the Gaza Strip and West Bank to carry out terrorist attacks.
The lawsuit also alleges that Israeli counterterrorism officers met with officials from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and China's central bank in 2005 and demanded that they move to prevent further wire transfers, but the demand was ignored.
Officials at the ministry and central bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
—Grace Zhu
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