Money laundering Charges Hurt Standard Chartered Bank

Standard Chartered "has to open its books to show us what really happened," says Kroll's Penelope Lepeudry

Shares of Standard Chartered have tumbled despite the bank denying allegations that it illegally "schemed" with Iran to launder money.

Shares in London fell 16.7%, about as much as its Hong Kong stock dropped.
The New York State Department of Financial Services said the UK-based bank laundered as much as $250bn (£161bn) over nearly a decade.
It said the bank hid transactions for "Iranian financial institutions" that were subject to US economic sanctions.
The regulator said that Standard Chartered had hidden 60,000 such secret transactions.
However, the bank denied the allegations, saying that it "strongly rejects the position or portrayal of facts as set out in the order" issued by the regulator.

  'Not a full picture'

The US regulator labelled UK-based Standard Chartered a "rogue institution" and ordered the bank to "explain these apparent violations of law" from 2001 to 2010.

It accused Standard Chartered of falsifying payment directions by stripping the message of unwanted data that showed the clients were Iranian, replacing it with false entries.
"It provided step-by-step, wire-stripping instructions for any payment messages containing information that would identify Iranian clients," the complaint said.
The regulator also said that it would hold a formal hearing over the "assessment of monetary penalties". The bank, which currently only operates in the US in New York, has also been threatened with having its New York banking licence revoked.
The regulator also pointed the finger at consultancy firm Deloitte, suggesting it could have aided Standard Chartered in its alleged deception.
Deloitte had "intentionally omitted critical information" in a report, it said.
Deloitte responded by saying its financial advisory service division "performed its role as independent consultant properly and had no knowledge of any alleged misconduct by bank employees. Allegations otherwise are unsupported by the facts."