On Wednesday, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to attack New York Attorney General Letitia James, based on a report on allegations that she ignored evidence of $9.6 billion in sanctions violations.
"She is a disgrace," Trump posted, along with a link to a news article from The Gateway Pundit that details a case now before the U.S. Second Circuit involving Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) and its New York City branch.
The bank is accused of allegedly funneling at least $9.6 billion in illicit payments to Iranian and Hezbollah-linked entities in payments reportedly uncovered in internal trade records provided by whistleblowers.
The report suggests these transactions may be just the tip of the iceberg, hinting at over $100 billion in further illicit transfers from SCB's China operations, which facilitate dollar-based trades for oil and other war materials.
The outlet claims that in early 2024, James and senior staff, including Deputy Bureau Chief Scott Spiegelman, were briefed twice by whistleblowers and terrorism finance experts on the scheme.
But rather than take action, James' office is said to have renewed SCB's state banking license, even though the payments were not disclosed in prior sanctions settlements. The report also highlights Spiegelman's later move to IBM, which allegedly advised SCB on how to conceal its trade data.
The Gateway Pundit further reported that both the Federal Reserve and SWIFT failed to block these transactions despite knowledge of Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions, effectively undermining the U.S. "Maximum Pressure" campaign.
It called for federal prosecutors to take action, specifically urging DCUSA and Southern District of New York to prosecute SCB for breaching its deferred prosecution agreement, urging Treasury to reclaim sanction enforcement authority from the Fed, and seeking over $10 billion in penalties from SCB.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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