Santander shares fell 5%
London/Madrid (EFE). – Shares in Santander fell 5% this Monday on the Spanish stock market after the Financial Times (FT) reported today that Iran used Santander UK and Lloyds accounts to circumvent sanctions, international obligations imposed by the US in this country.
Iran used accounts at Lloyds and Santander UK, two of the United Kingdom’s largest banks, to secretly move money around the world as part of a sanctions-evasion plan backed by Tehran’s intelligence services, according to an economic newspaper.
Santander denies it has failed to comply with international standards and clarified that it has policies and procedures to ensure compliance with sanctions-related requirements.
As a result of this situation, the bank’s shares have suffered since the opening of today’s session on the Spanish stock market, a day that ended with a loss of 5%.
Biggest drop at closing since April 2023.
Banco Santander’s fall is the company’s biggest close since April 25, 2023, when it fell 5.97% after reporting quarterly earnings.
For their part, the bank’s British subsidiary and Lloyds on Monday denied violating sanctions.
In a statement, Santander UK assured that following an internal investigation it believes it is not in breach of US sanctions.
“We have policies and procedures in place to ensure compliance with sanctions requirements and will continue to actively engage with relevant authorities in the UK and US,” the bank said in a statement.
In relation to the UK bank, a spokesperson explained that they believe they have complied with all legal and regulatory obligations and, based on their own investigation, they do not believe they have failed to comply with any requirement of the sanctions. against Tehran.
Accusations
Lloyds and Santander UK provided accounts to British shell companies secretly owned by a sanctioned Iranian petrochemical company based in London, according to documents accessed by The Economic Newspaper.
The Iranian state-controlled Petrochemical Commercial Company (PCC) was part of a network the United States accuses of raising hundreds of millions of dollars for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force and collaborating with Russian intelligence agencies to raise money for Iranian militias.
According to the aforementioned newspaper, both PCC and its British subsidiary PCC UK have been under US sanctions since November 2018.
Moreover, according to a series of documents, emails and accounting records, the UK division of PCC continued to operate from an office located in the English capital during this time, using a complex network of organizations.
The FT also notes that revelations about Iran’s sanctions-evasion operation in London come after the UK recently joined US airstrikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The UK and US last week imposed sanctions on a so-called “transnational assassination network” controlled by Iranian intelligence and targeting activists and dissidents, including those in the UK.
Petrochemical activities
The documents show that, under US sanctions, the CCP used companies in the UK to receive funds from Iranian front organizations in China, while hiding its actual ownership through “trust agreements” and appointed directors.
One of them, Pisco UK, is registered from a private home in the English county of Surrey and uses a commercial account with Santander UK, which has now been closed, according to the newspaper.
According to that country’s corporate registry, Pisco UK is wholly owned by a British man named Abdollah-Siaouash Fahimi.
However, internal documents, some of which were published online on (Iranian opposition website) WikiIran, show that Pisco is controlled by the CCP and that Fahimi signed an agreement to hold the company in trust on your behalf.
Among other revelations, the FT notes that Fahimi used a PCC email address to correspond with company officials in Tehran and that he was a director of PCC UK from April 2021 to February 2022, according to UK corporate documents.
Transfer from a Chinese company
In 2021, Pisco’s Santander account received a transfer from the Chinese company Black Tulip, which PCC’s internal records show is another trust company controlled by one of its employees.
Last year, the United States accused Iranian petrochemical companies of using multiple front companies to evade sanctions by routing their sales through Asia.
Banco Santander has been operating in the United Kingdom since 2004, when it acquired Abbey National Bank, and its subsidiary Santander UK, one of the most powerful in the group, posted a net profit in 2023 of €1,545 million, or 10.8%. than in 2022.
