A deputy governor of the Iranian Central Bank said the Islamic Republic was taking legal steps to counter a lawsuit filed in a US court by creditors seeking to seize $1.7 billion of its assets held by Deutsche Boerse’s Clearstream unit.
Amir Hossein Tayyebi Fard said in a statement, “After repeated legal defeats in Luxembourg, the US plaintiffs are seeking legal action in US courts against Clearstream. Serious legal action is also underway to counter these measures.”
The German stock exchange operator said earlier the creditors had filed the suit in a New York court seeking to require Clearstream to surrender assets that belong to Iran. It said the clearing house considers the claims to be unfounded and will take steps to defeat them.
US authorities have accused Clearstream of violating US money laundering and Iran sanction laws. Deutsche Boerse has denied wrongdoing.
In 2020, a Luxembourg court said Iranian assets worth $1.6 billion held by Clearstream as compensation for alleged terror victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks will not be transferred to the US amid Washington’s pressures.
It added that the appeals court had found the US seizure demand “inadmissible” and in violation of Luxembourg’s national law since the type of account, in which the cash is held in the European country, is “unseizable.”
Back in 2012, a New York court claimed there was evidence to show that Iran provided “material support and resources” to al-Qaeda operatives that carried out the terrorist attacks in the US in 2001.
The New York court awarded the plaintiffs damages of over $7 billion.
Iran has denied any links to al-Qaeda or any involvement in the 9/11 attacks whose perpetrators were mostly from Saudi Arabia.
