Lender fined for breaching Iran sanctions

STANDARD Chartered let a customer open a bank account using a suitcase stuffed with £500,000 in cash in a shocking money laundering breach.

Another client of the London-based lender was allowed to export products with military uses to more than 75 countries without proper checks, including two where wars were raging.

The errors were revealed in a damning report by the Financial Conduct Authority, as the bank was fined £828m following long- running claims it busted sanctions in Iran.

Standard Chartered chief executive Bill Winters, pictured, said the breaches were ‘completely unacceptable’.

The bank’s Dubai branch handled hundreds of millions of pounds between 2008 and 2014 on behalf of clients in Iran and other countries blacklisted by the US.

Iran was hit with sanctions meant to cut it off from global markets due to US fears the country is funding terrorism.

Standard Chartered blamed many of the problems on two junior staff members who knew customers were connected to Iran, and conspired with them to break the law.

The bank will pay £726m to US authorities and another £102m to the FCA. It is the watchdog’s second-biggest money laundering fine ever.

Standard Chartered was guilty of a long list of breaches, the FCA said – including allowing a customer to open an account in 2011 using £500,000 stuffed in a suitcase.

The FCA said: ‘ The customer file contained little evidence that the source of these funds had been investigated.’

The bank also worked for a customer who exported what the FCA called ‘a commercial product which could, potentially, have a military application’. Items with dual applications include guns, vehicles and toxic chemicals.

Standard Chartered has signed a two-year deferred prosecution agreement in the US, meaning if it puts a foot wrong it faces criminal penalties and could be stripped of its right to handle dollars.

A former employee has admitted fraud in the US, and investigators have charged a 49-year-old Iranian, Mahmoud Reza Elyassi, with setting up fake companies in the UAE to transfer money to Iran. An estimated £184m was handled by Standard Chartered on his behalf, they said. Assistant attorney general Brian Benczkowski said: ‘If you circumvent US sanctions against rogue states like Iran – or assist those who do – you will pay a steep price.’ Standard Chartered, set aside £689m in February to cover expected costs. Shares rose 0.3pc, or

1.8p, to 647.4p.