THREE men jailed in a major money laundering case have appeared in court once again to face fresh charges set against them.
Four Iranian state-owned banks were fined BD2 million in connection with a money laundering case involving billions of dollars at a Bahrain-based bank.
The banks – Future Bank, Bank Saderat, Bank Melli and Bank Saderat (Doha branch) – were fined BD500,000 each by the High Criminal Court on April 1.
Three Iranian men who were standing trial in the case were jailed for 25 years each for money laundering.
They were also fined BD500,000 each and had BD40,000 confiscated from them in total.
However, the defendants appeared at the High Criminal Court yesterday to face new charges.
“The defendants are facing new charges following continued investigations into two Iranian state-owned banks which were featured in a money laundering case involving billions of dollars at a Bahrain-based bank,” read court documents.
“The defendants include officials from Future Bank.
“Thousands of bank transactions are being probed and this is expected to lead to the involvement of more suspects.”
The hearing was adjourned until July 2 for a ruling.
The case comes after the completion of five cases in the operations of Future Bank, controlled by two Iranian state-owned banks, Bank Saderat and Bank Melli.
A 2018 assessment of Future Bank’s operations by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) found it and its controlling shareholders had engaged in systematic and widescale violations of Bahrain’s banking laws.
Subsequent interviews with Future Bank employees and a review of tens of thousands of Future Bank documents were undertaken by the CBB, the Interior Ministry’s financial investigation unit, and independent international regulatory experts and forensic analysts.
The GDN reported in April 2018 that Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa had accused Iran of being behind terrorist activities in Bahrain.
He said at the time that Bahrain continued to contribute to international efforts to fight extremism and terrorism and dry up sources financing terrorist organisations.
He also said that Future Bank had to be placed under administration in 2015 for violating banking laws.
He said investigations had revealed that the bank was involved in laundering $4.7 billion through ‘wire stripping’ SWIFT messages, laundering $2.7bn through an old method of inter-bank messaging, issuing letters of credit and trade finance guarantees worth $1.5bn, and disbursing funds through illegal means in Bahrain to strengthen Iranian influence in the country.
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