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A BANK has been fined BD25 million for its involvement in the largest money laundering case in the history of Bahrain.
It’s among 14 banks linked to Iran that have been found guilty of laundering more than a billion US dollars between 2008 and 2012.
The ruling followed prosecutors lodging an objection against the earlier verdict by the Cassation Court, in October, owing to a technicality. Bahrain’s highest court had fined BD18m, however, prosecutors said the amount should have been BD25m.
Judges at the Cassation Court yesterday accepted the objection.
“Prosecutors lodged an objection against the amount fined which should have been BD1m for each transaction,” read the final court ruling.
“There was a total of 25 transactions and hence the penalty for the bank should be BD25m.”
The GDN previously reported that the defendants were sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and each was fined BD1m for each laundering transaction – which was 166 operations – totalling the fines to BD996m.
Bahrain-based Future Bank, the Central Bank of Iran and 12 other Iranian banks have been found guilty of laundering more than $1.3bn between 2008 and 2012.
The banks implicated in the scandal are Future Bank, Bank Saderat Iran, Bank Melli, Bank Saderat, Doha branch among 10 other banks including the Central Bank of Iran.
The GDN reported in May this year that the High Criminal Court convicted and sentenced five Iranian Future Bank officials to 10 years behind bars in absentia in July 2021.
A 54-year-old Bahraini was also sentenced to five years behind bars and all officials were fined $1m each.
The convicts aimed to launder money through a bank controlled by the National Bank of Iran (Melli) and Bank Saderat Iran, empowering Iranian entities, including those involved in financing terrorism or subject to international sanctions designed to prevent them from carrying out international banking transactions.
noorz@gdnmedia.bh
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