Justin Glanville | New York | July 6
AP – Families of U.S. citizens killed or hurt in terrorist attacks in Israel filed an $875 million lawsuit against Arab Bank, accusing it of channeling money to Palestinian terrorist groups and making insurance payments to beneficiaries of suicide bombers.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court, claims the Jordan-based bank’s New York branch laundered Saudi aid to terrorists. The branch first converted the money into dollars and then sent it to local branches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip where it was paid out to terrorists and terrorist organizations, the suit alleges.
The bank also worked with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to distribute insurance money to beneficiaries of suicide bombers, including their families and those wounded or captured by Israeli security forces, the lawsuit alleges.
“We have a mountain of evidence that will prove that the bank not only knows about the terror financing, but is actively involved and using its New York branch to launder the money,” Mark Werbner, the lead attorney for the families, said in a statement Tuesday.
Officials with Arab Bank in Amman, Jordan, could not immediately be reached for comment. A spokesman for the New York branch did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Linde v. Arab Bank, are six U.S. families whose members have died or been hurt in attacks in Israel.
Among them is Courtney Linde, the widow of John Linde Jr., a security guard from Missouri who died when a bomb tore apart a vehicle in a U.S. diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip last October.
“John was a wonderful and gentle person, but he was also a Marine, and I know he would have wanted me to fight for him,” Courtney Linde said in statement Tuesday.
Arab Bank has 30 branches across the Middle East, Europe, the United States, Australia and North Africa.
AP-ES-07-06-04 1041EDT
Is an important story! Going after Saudis for paying life insurance to Palestinian suicide bombers.
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/07/international/middleeast/07bank.html
July 7, 2004
Suit Claims Arab Bank Aided Militants’ Relatives
By JULIA PRESTON
Relatives of Americans who were killed in terrorist attacks in Israel have sued Arab Bank, a leading bank in Jordan, asserting that the bank aided terrorism by paying life insurance to relatives of Palestinian suicide bombers.
The civil complaint, filed Friday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, seeks $875 million in damages for the family members.
The suit says Arab Bank set up accounts to channel funds from an organization run by the Saudi government, the Saudi Committee for Supporting Al Quds Intifada, to at least two militant Palestinian groups, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. According to the suit, Arab Bank administered an insurance program that provided a standard benefit worth $5,316.06 to the families of Palestinians who were killed in attacks on Israel, including those who blew themselves up.
It also says bank officials knew the funds passing through their accounts would support or encourage violence against civilians.
In a statement, Arab Bank said its lawyers had not been able to study the suit, but it called the allegations “completely false and totally irresponsible.” The bank said it operated under strict regulation in the United States and Jordan.
The suit is a new attempt to untangle the financial web tying the Saudi government to militant Palestinian groups that have tolerated or openly claimed terrorist attacks in Israel. The Saudi interior minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, is the supervisor of the committee named in the court documents.
Saudi officials have said the aid they supply through the committee is used only for aid purposes, like buying food and ambulances, and for providing support for widows and children. In the early months of the Palestinian uprising in 2002, top Saudi officials spoke proudly of millions of dollars of aid that they were sending to “the families of the martyrs.”
Since a recent surge of terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia, including a bombing in Riyadh in April in which four people were killed and more than 140 wounded, Saudi officials have muted their statements about their assistance for the Palestinians, but have not moved to diminish it.
Arab Bank, with $24 billion in assets and branches in Europe and the United States, has branches throughout the Palestinian territories.
According to the suit, Arab Bank distributed death benefits from the committee to the families of at least 200 Palestinians killed in attacks on Israel in its first year of operations, after October 2000.
LA Times 12/22
THE WORLD
Arab Bank Is Sued in Attacks
Victims of Palestinian strikes in Israel and the territories accuse the institution of complicity.
By Josh Meyer, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — Lawyers for victims of attacks by Palestinian militant groups filed suit Tuesday against a prominent Middle Eastern bank, saying it helped funnel money to Palestinian suicide bombers and should be forced to pay damages.
The suit against Arab Bank was filed in federal district court in Brooklyn, N.Y., on behalf of nearly 700 victims of attacks in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and their relatives. The plaintiffs are from Israel, the U.S. and 10 other countries….
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-lawsuit22dec22,1,2847092.story?coll=la-headlines
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