A US judge has imposed court sanctions on Jordan's Arab Bank for defying requests to produce account records that might show it provided financial services to suspected terrorists.
Nina Gershon, a district court judge in New York, ordered that when the six-year-old case goes to trial, jurors could infer Arab Bank "provided financial services to organisations designated by the US as foreign terrorist organisations" and people allegedly affiliated.
Judge Gershon also said jurors could infer Arab Bank "processed and distributed payments on behalf of" the Saudi Committee for the Support of the Intifada al Quds, a fund set up to support the relatives of suicide bombers.
The sanctions further allowed jurors to assume the bank had "knowledge and purposeful intent" in providing financial services to named terrorist groups. They also barred Arab Bank from presenting defences at trial that the plaintiffs could have refuted using evidence it refused to provide.
The order was a setback for Arab Bank, which had argued it could not turn over some records as doing so would violate banking secrecy laws in Jordan and Lebanon.
"In compliance with the New York court's orders in this litigation, Arab Bank has produced hundreds of thousands of documents and successfully sought waivers from bank secrecy laws in several countries where it operates," the bank said yesterday.
"Where the bank was unable to obtain such waivers from the appropriate authorities in certain countries, it elected not to violate these laws. The bank's actions were taken in good faith. We look forward to exercising all of our legal options regarding the ruling and proving the falsity of the plaintiffs' claims at trial."
Brought by victims of terrorist attacks in Israel in 2004, the case is one of the largest of its kind.
The victims, who number in the hundreds, allege Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Front for the Liberation of Palestine, among other groups designated by the US as terrorist organisations, deposited money from fund-raising activities in Arab Bank accounts in Lebanon and Jordan and transferred it to suspected terrorists and their families.
The bank is also alleged to have aided in laundering money for terrorist front groups and maintained accounts from which the Saudi committee distributed funds.
The victims are seeking US$875 million (Dh3.21 billion) in damages under anti-terrorism laws. A trial date has yet to be set.
afitch@thenational.ae
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The biog
Name: Maitha Qambar
Age: 24
Emirate: Abu Dhabi
Education: Master’s Degree
Favourite hobby: Reading
She says: “Everyone has a purpose in life and everyone learns from their experiences”
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
THE%20SPECS
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The specs: 2018 Ford Mustang GT
Price, base / as tested: Dh204,750 / Dh241,500
Engine: 5.0-litre V8
Gearbox: 10-speed automatic
Power: 460hp @ 7,000rpm
Torque: 569Nm @ 4,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 10.3L / 100km
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Biography
Favourite drink: Must have karak chai and Chinese tea every day
Favourite non-Chinese food: Arabic sweets and Indian puri, small round bread of wheat flour
Favourite Chinese dish: Spicy boiled fish or anything cooked by her mother because of its flavour
Best vacation: Returning home to China
Music interests: Enjoys playing the zheng, a string musical instrument
Enjoys reading: Chinese novels, romantic comedies, reading up on business trends, government policy changes
Favourite book: Chairman Mao Zedong’s poems
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.