Treasury Department's OCC Should Release Investigative Report on Arab Bank

By Lee Wolosky

Today federal banking regulators announced one of the highest fines ever, against Arab Bank plc, which allegedly participated in, among other things, an organized program to provide systematic financial payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers during the second initfada, including suicide bombers responsible for the deaths of American citizens (see my prior post and Victor Comras's below; see also this compelling report from NBC Nightly News.  Arab Bank continues to deny responsibility for these acts, taking the extraordinary position in pending legal proceedings that the payments to families of shahids (martyrs) are "ordinary bank transactions" and saying today that the U.S. government fine was "unreasonably high" .

Arab Bank's conduct and alleged ties to terrorist organizations have generated recent interest not only in the executive branch but also in the halls of Congress, where Rep. Anthony Wiener (D-NY) has introduced legislation to expel the bank from the United States (HR 3370).  Arab Bank has also been criticized by Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Rep. Sue Kelly (R-NY) in recent hearings of the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee, respectively.  Notwithstanding Congressional and public interest, the OCC has thus far refrained from releasing an 80-plus page report of its investigation into transactions of Arab Bank's New York branch, which continues to operate today.  That report presumably served as the basis of today's enforcement action, and the American people have a right to know what's in it.  It should be released without delay.  Disclosure note:  I serve as special counsel to a lawsuit against Arab Bank commenced by Israeli and Americans victims of the second intifada.

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