Standard Chartered Loses Bid To Cut U.S. Sanctions Breach Claims From UK Lawsuit

Standard Chartered has lost a bid to remove from a London lawsuit allegations that it broke US sanctions against Iran more extensively than it has previously admitted, reported Sam Tobin for Reuters.

More than 200 investors are suing Standard Chartered at London's High Court for allegedly making untrue statements about its sanctions non-compliance between 2007 and 2019. I Photo: Shkuru Afshar Wikimedia Commons

More than 200 investors are suing Standard Chartered at London's High Court for allegedly making untrue statements about its sanctions non-compliance between 2007 and 2019.

The lawsuit follows the London-based bank's agreement to pay $1.1 billion in 2019 to US and British authorities over transactions that breached sanctions against Iran and other countries.

The 2019 deal extended by two years a 2012 deferred prosecution agreement with Standard Chartered, under which the bank paid US authorities $667 million. The investors, however, allege "industrial-scale sanctions non-compliance" by Standard Chartered beyond what the bank admitted to regulators.

Standard Chartered, which strongly rejects the allegations, tried to have the allegations of sanctions non-compliance not covered by admissions to regulators thrown out.