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“Trojan Horse” inside Bahrain, facilitating more than USD 7 billion of Iranian businessAccording to Bahrain’s defence, a lookback into the bank’s historic business shows that it was used by Iran as a “Trojan horse” inside Bahrain, affording Iran “secret access” to the international monetary system in defiance of U.S. and other international sanctions intended to isolate Tehran.Specifically, the bank is alleged to have avoided sanctions against Iran, to the tune of at least USD 7 billion, by deliberately removing or changing certain identifying information when transferring money between banks—a practice known as “wire-stripping.” Bahrain asserts that the auditors detected more...

WASHINGTON — A senior Treasury Department official called Iran "the central banker of terrorism" in testimony Tuesday before the Senate Finance Committee, but said the United States is succeeding in chasing money tied to the Al Qaeda terror group. Outlining some of what Iran is known to be doing to support anti-American and anti-Israeli fighters, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey said Iran "uses its global financial ties and its state-owned banks to pursue its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and to fund terrorism." He also told lawmakers that Iran uses front companies and "cut-outs" to...