By Erik Larson and Christie Smythe
Published Sep 23, 2014 9:50 AM ET
Arab Bank Plc, Jordan’s biggest lender, helped Hamas militants carry out a wave of violence in Israel that killed and wounded hundreds of Americans, a New York jury decided in the first trial of its kind in the U.S. The company’s shares tumbled.
The Amman-based lender was found liable for doing business with more than 150 Hamas leaders and operatives in the early 2000s, helping finance about two dozen deadly suicide bombings, including attacks on crowded restaurants and buses in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, jurors decided yesterday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. The shares dropped 5.6 percent to 7.32 dinars at 11:17 a.m. local time, the biggest decline in more than a month.
“The verdict is an incredible message that should be understood and heard by the entire financial community — if you do business with terrorists, you can be held liable” in the U.S., Michael Elsner, one of the plaintiffs lawyers, said in a phone interview.
The case is Linde v. Arab Bank Plc, 04-cv-02799, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).
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