Standard Chartered, the primary sponsor of Liverpool, has been charged in the US with handling billion-dollar transactions for terrorist organizations’ financiers.
Based on these allegations, a former Standard Chartered bank executive filed a lawsuit in New York, claiming the bank violated Iranian sanctions by engaging in over $100 billion worth of transactions between 2008 and 2013.
That is far more than Standard Chartered acknowledged in 2012, when they settled a criminal case involving money laundering and avoided prosecution. In 2019, they acknowledged another violation in a different case, which resulted in the bank having to pay fines to US and UK authorities totaling over $1.7 billion.
In 2012 and 2013, US authorities received confidential bank spreadsheets from two whistleblowers, one of whom was Julian Knight, the former head of a Standard Chartered transaction services unit from 2009 to 2011. However, the initial investigation found no improper transactions after 2007 before additional breaches were discovered in the period between 2007 and 2011.
Furthermore, according to the most recent court filing from last Friday, an independent expert examined the spreadsheets and asserted that he discovered an additional 500,000 concealed transactions, of which $9.6 billion, he claims, are with people and businesses that the US government has identified as providing funding to “terror groups.”
Despite having twice previously accepted a breach of sanctions, Standard Chartered has never admitted to conducting transactions for “terrorist” organizations.
Knight’s latest court filing requests that a US federal court in New York reinstate his claim against the bank, which the US Supreme Court rejected in February 2024. Knight also alleges that US authorities either failed to notice or withheld evidence that would have supported his allegations.
In a statement made to the BBC, Standard Chartered said it disputes the whistleblowers’ claims and that their previous allegations had been “thoroughly discredited” by US authorities.
In a full statement to the ECHO, the bank said: “This filing is another attempt to use claims against the bank, following previous unsuccessful attempts. The US authorities, who conducted a thorough investigation into the claims and declared them to be “meritless” and devoid of any evidence of US sanctions violations, have completely discredited the false allegations that supported it. We are confident the courts will reject these claims, as they have already done repeatedly.”
With the most recent agreement signed in 2022, Standard Chartered will be Liverpool’s primary shirt sponsor for the next five years, contributing more than £50 million annually to the Reds. After the 2026–2027 season, it is scheduled to expire.
A request for comment has been made by the ECHO to the Fenway Sports Group.
