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Sanctions Civil Suits Could Expand Legal Claims of Terror Victims
By Colby Adams
printA pair of civil complaints relying on a Colombian insurgent group's ties to Hezbollah could prompt a rise in similar lawsuits and related subpoenas sent to banks, according to legal experts. The plaintiffs in both cases argue that the Lebanese militant organization has been instrumental to the drug trafficking operations of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and that the relationship of the two groups allows them to invoke an American law subjecting frozen terrorist funds to civil litigation. Although the United States has deemed FARC a "foreign terrorist organization" since 1997, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of...
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An opinion by New York State's highest court could reanimate lawsuits against foreign banks alleged to have maintained accounts for blacklisted terrorist groups, even when the institutions have no physical U.S. presence.
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The dismissal last month of a $500 million civil lawsuit against UBS AG for allegedly contributing to terrorist attacks won't impact rulings on similar lawsuits against other banks, say analysts.
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Four Canadians are suing the Montreal branch of Lebanese-Canadian Bank, alleging that the institution knowingly provided financial services to Hizbollah, an organization blacklisted internationally for terrorism.
Israeli lawyer Itsana Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, who represents victims of terrorism in lawsuits against banks, spoke recently with Fortent Inform reporter Brian Orsak about the suits and what banks should be doing to better monitor for terrorists attempting to exploit the financial system.
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