Arab Bank found liable for terrorist financing

Arab Bank was liable for knowingly supporting terrorism in and around Israel which led to the deaths of US citizens, a federal jury found in New York on 22 September. The plaintiffs in the civil suit, some 300 individuals who either suffered directly or had a family member killed in one of 24 attacks during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, alleged that the bank had assisted Hamas – holding accounts for members of the militant group. The bank was also accused of facilitating transfers for a charity called the Saudi Committee, which, the plaintiffs claimed, sent payments to the families of Hamas suicide bombers. Defending its compliance record, the bank said that the Saudi Committee was a legitimate charity, not listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States. It said it had made checks on all accounts and transactions against relevant sanctions lists and if any were not correctly blocked it was due to errors in, for example, transliteration of names between Arabic to English.