Trial of Iranian Pilatus Bank Manager Begins in New York

Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, the manager of Pilatus Bank, who was recently arrested in the U.S. for allegedly circumventing U.S. sanctions and transferring millions of dollars to Iran, denied the charges against him in the first court session. The hearing to inform Mr. Sadr Hashemi Nejad of the charges took place on March 27 in Manhattan, New York, presided over by Judge Barbara Moses. Judge Moses rejected the Iranian defendant's request for bail, stating that due to Sadr's 'wealth and connections' in other countries, the likelihood of him leaving the United States is very high. According to Reuters, the defendant's lawyer stated that the chance of Sadr leaving the U.S. is very low because he has family ties, his wife is a U.S. citizen, and he himself has legal residency. Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, 38, is a banker in Malta at Pilatus Bank. His family controls a financial group called Startos, which is responsible for a project to build thousands of homes in Venezuela. Sadr Hashemi Nejad is accused of using this project to circumvent U.S. sanctions and taking steps to transfer money through the U.S. financial system while concealing Iran's role. The indictment against Sadr Hashemi Nejad states that the Startos group reached an agreement in 2006 with a state-owned energy company in Venezuela to build seven thousand homes for $476 million. He is accused of transferring $115 million to Iran through the U.S. financial system. The financial services regulator in Malta dismissed Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad from the presidency of Pilatus Bank on April 1 and suspended all banking operations of the bank. According to this authority's ruling, Pilatus Bank has no right to conduct any banking activities and is prohibited from transferring money and capital. Pilatus Bank is also involved in a legal dispute with a Maltese journalist named Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed in a car explosion last October. This legal dispute was related to reports by Ms. Galizia, which accused the bank and Ali Sadr of 'political corruption' and 'money laundering.' A few months before her death, Ms. Caruana Galizia accused several Maltese officials, including the Prime Minister, of financial misconduct or corruption. These individuals had accounts at Mr. Sadr Hashemi Nejad's bank. Pilatus Bank rejected Ms. Caruana Galizia's reports, describing them as 'fake.'