Terror-aid bank suit (Chinese bank sued by Israelis)

[davidhaslanded]

-excerpt-

The families of five Israeli students murdered by a Palestinian gunman in 2008 plan to sue the Bank of China today for allegedly moving millions of dollars for a terror group that hailed the attack, The Post has learned.

The pending Manhattan Supreme Court suit will seek more than $750 million in damages on grounds that the Chinese bank “provided extensive banking services” to Hamas and “materially supported” the deadly rampage.

[link:http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/terror_aid_bank_suit_1K8gMnB4JOeSNjynaAqE5K|

[azurnoir]

1. Interesting was one of the victims an American citizen? Otherwise why is it being tried in the US

rather than Israel?

It did occur to me that a win of that magnitude could indeed put a damper on Israeli-China trade relations

China Israel Bilateral Trade
General

China and Israel began their trade relations long before the actual establishment of the diplomatic relations in 1992. Though the initial figures were quite modest, due to the constant and rapid growth in trade throughout the years, the bilateral trade between the two countries has already reached 6.7 billion US$ in 2010 and is expected to top 8 billion US$ in 2011.

In light of the economic and trade developments, China was defined by the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade, and labor as an "Israeli Export Target Country". The main goal of this program is to encourage Israeli exports, especially in the fields of Telecommunication and High-Tech, Agro-technology, Security, Environment and Infrastructures to the Chinese market.

Each year, business delegations in various fields are conducted to different provinces to expose the local industries to Israeli companies in their field. Delegations were already successfully conducted in provinces such as Guangdong, Sichuan, Yunnan, Hainan, Heilongjiang etc.

The Israeli Economic activity in China is also expanding – Trade Representative offices were established in southern China in the cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and in southwest China in the city of Chengdu. A office in northeast China, in the city of Dalian will soon be opened as well.

http://www.israeltrade.org.cn/english/doing_business_with_china/bilateral_trade/000052/

according to a table in the link China imports 34.57% of its high tech /electronic stuff from Israel and this could conceivably cause a chill in that, unless of course it is a private Chinese bank being sued

[oberliner]

2. It's the New York Post

Hopefully you know what that means.

[davidhaslanded]

3. More information

More info in this article:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2012/10/23/families-slain-students-file-suit-against-bank-china/

According to the Israel Law Center's website:
http://www.israellawcenter.org/page.asp?id=341&show=photo&pn=1286&ref=report

"Usually, US citizens have the right to file lawsuits against those who sponsor and execute terror. In this suit, we were able to make use of laws allowing non-Americans to also sue in US courts in the case of terrorism," explained Darshan-Leitner.

The plaintiffs allege that starting in 2003, the national Chinese bank executed dozens of wire transfers for Hamas totaling several million dollars. These transfers were initiated by the Hamas leadership in Iran and Syria, processed through BOC branches in the United States and sent on to a BOC account in China operated by a senior militant. From there, the funds were transferred to Hamas and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

In April 2005, Israeli counterterrorism officers met with officials from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and China’s Central Bank. The Israelis demanded that the Chinese officials take action to prevent the BOC from making any further such wire transfers. "Despite these warnings the state-owned bank, with Beijing's approval, continued to wire funds for terrorism, all while declaring that they did not consider Hamas a terrorist group," stressed Darshan-Leitner.

According to the complaint: "Most of these wire transfers were made to account #4750401-0188-150882-6 at a Bank of China branch in Guangzhou, China, in the name of `S.Z.R Al-Shurafa.' The owner of the account, Said al-Shurafa, is a senior officer and agent of both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad."

The US has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization since 1997 and as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” since 2001. As such, Hamas is subject to strict economic sanctions intended to prevent it from conducting banking activities that help finance their attacks.

Actual complaint for those who want to read:
http://he.scribd.com/doc/110977008/Rot-v-Bank-of-China

[King_David]

12. Its not the Government of Israel suing nt

[azurnoir]

13. That's the idea in my post if the US acts as 'executioner'

Israel can remain clean as it were, the question is will China see it that way

[davidhaslanded]

4. Chinese response

The New York branch of the Bank of China (BOC) Wednesday denied all the accusations in a lawsuit filed in the US by the families of eight Israeli students killed in a 2008 terrorist attack in Jerusalem, an officer from the legal department with the branch confirmed to the Global Times.

The BOC was alleged by the Israelis to have "intentionally and recklessly" provided terrorist groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad with banking services. The lawsuit brought in the New York State court Tuesday seeks 1 billion dollars in compensation, the Dow Jones Newswires reported.

"The bank has always adhered to the regulations of China and other jurisdictions where the bank has branches. The bank's internal rules also forbid providing any financial services to terrorist groups," an officer with the legal department of the bank's New York branch told the Global Times. She said the bank had not been served with lawsuit documents.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/7990451.html

[bemildred]

5. At the link it says "Terror-aid bank sult". 'l', not 'i'.

Good lord. The spelling. The illiteracy. I'm used to bizarre headlines, but this is a bit over the edge. One typo and you have a porn movie title "Terror-aid bank slut". But I suppose they wil fix it soon.

[azurnoir]

6. out to be interesting in any event n/t

[bemildred]

7. Koud be. nt

[azurnoir]

11. lol no coffee no postie

[bemildred]

14. Yeah, I think that got us both today.

[oberliner]

8. May need to get your eyes checked

It does not say what you are claiming.

[bemildred]

9. It did. I checked three times. nt

[bemildred]

10. Take it back. I have to blow the fonts up, but they are 'i''s.

Mea culpa. But it was fun.

[Violet_Crumble]

18. OMG YOU SAID THE S-WORD!

What's wrong with you, bemildred? Is yr asterisk key stuck perhaps? The way it's spelt is s*** and if you spell it differently, it's worthy of a new Meta thread! A bit of sensitivity, fer f***s sake!

[bemildred]

20. F**k meta threads. Is that better?

(Though, to be fair, sometimes they do have actual content.)

We've all been the subject of "intense interest" from time to time, have we not? And what does it amount to?
Wind. People need to lighten up. Anger just shortens your life. You can advocate for a cause without ranting, it can even work better.

Nice to see you around.

[Violet_Crumble]

23. It's nice to see you too...

What with MIRTin' taking up a fair bit of time over the last few months, I'd weaned myself off this group, but now I'm finished with that I feel a bit more comfortable and time-free jumping back into groups like this one and forums like Meta, even though sometimes the high volume of asterisks in posts remind me of work emails when people are trying to get round the filter thingy...

[oberliner]

21. Mocking something that doesn't exist

Always fun - always useful.

[bemildred]

22. And very very popular in I/P. nt

[Alamuti Lotus]

15. Terror-aid? Is that anything like Flav-R-Aid? Sounds like serious deadly stuff, either way. *nt

[King_David]

16. What a funny witty post

[Alamuti Lotus]

17. Thank you!!

I make the effort just for you, my adoring fan.

[Violet_Crumble]

19. I'd like to think it resembled Live Aid from the 80's...

Y'know, Bob Geldof gets on the phone to Bono and goes 'Mate, we're going to dig all the old fossils up and book Wembley and a bunch of huge places around the world and we're going to do Terror-Aid and sing a really boring song about it that will shoot to the top of the charts and make me squillions. For every dollar we make, half of one cent after admin fees are deducted, will go to the poor, struggling terrorists around the globe. The rest will go to the New York Post, coz we've got to have something to laugh at that's total crap, but only after I've opened an account with a Chinese Terror-Bank to put in all the earnings from Terror-Aid.'