Asian Legal Business Online reports that the case filed by the New York Department of Financial Services last week alleges that the bank’s general counsel – who was not named in the filing - sent an e-mail to a compliance officer in 1995, which ‘embraced a framework for regulatory evasion’.

Wire transfers

The e-mail was supposedly a response to US economic sanctions against Iran, prohibiting US banks from converting Iranian wire transfers into dollars.
The financial institution’s top lawyer allegedly suggested that the bank cut its American operations out of the loop to circumvent the order, with the NY regulator claiming the GC told compliance staff ‘there is nothing they can do’. The regulator also claims that Standard’s legal department ignored warnings from an unnamed external counsel.
Standard Chartered has declined to comment specifically on the allegations concerning its legal department, but the bank has issued a statement rejecting the New York regulator’s wider claims.