Standard Chartered Scandal: CEO In NY Showdown, Fighting For Bank's U.S. Licence

By Oliver Tree | August 14 2012 8:51 AM

The CEO of Standard Chartered PLC [LON: STAN] is in New York to defend against accusations the bank "schemed" to hide $250 billion of illegal transactions with Iran.

Reuters

Peter Sands from Standard Chartered. Sands hit back at the New York State regulator at the end of last week, saying that the bank had not broken US sanctions and that he saw "no grounds" for revoking the lender's licence.

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Peter Sands is readying himself to negotiate with prosecutor Benjamin Lawsky, Superintendent of New York's Department of Financial Services (DFS), in a bid save its state banking license from being revoked,effectively locking the bank out of the U.S. market.

The meeting comes as reports indicated that lawyers for Standard Chartered were preparing to meet with regulators on Wednesday to hammer out a deal, with Reuters reporting Lawsky was seeking a settlement of around $350 million.

It is not yet known if the hearing will be held in private, or if Sands will be asked to attend.

A spokesman for the bank told the BBC: "Peter is prepared to appear if required."

Sands hit back at the DFS last week, saying that the bank had not broken US sanctions and that he saw "no grounds" for revoking the lender's licence.

The DFS said it conducted an extensive investigation, which included a review of more than 30,000 pages of documents, including internal Standard Chartered Bank e-mails, that "describe wilful and egregious violations of law."

"For almost 10 years, SCB schemed with the government of Iran and hid from regulators roughly 60,000 secret transactions, involving at least $250bn, and reaping SCB hundreds of millions of dollars in fees," the DFS said, describing the bank as a, "rogue institution."

"SCB's actions left the US financial system vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes, and deprived law enforcement investigators of crucial information used to track all manner of criminal activity."

Standard Chartered has admitted to breaking US sanctions on 300 transactions worth around $14 million.

US regulators have targeted UK and European banks for its dealings with countries with US sanctions against them since 2009.

The US Justice Department, the OFAC and the Manhattan District Attorney's office have investigated a number of major UK and European banks for similar conduct, which has resulted in more than $2.3bn worth of fines.