News

Iran's central bank is preparing to file a motion in a New York federal court early next year to release nearly $2 billion of its frozen funds at Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank unit, according to attorneys for the Iranian bank.

Tehran's action will mark the latest step in a widening legal struggle for control of the money.

The assets were frozen in 2008 after a group of more than 1,000 victims of international terrorism sought the funds as partial payment for a $2.7 billion legal judgment made against Tehran for its alleged role in the 1983 bombing of a Marine Corps barracks in Beirut that killed 241 servicemen.