The central bank (Bank Markazi) demands some $4.9 billion (4.0 billion euros) of assets held in Clearstream accounts belonging to it and to Italian bank UBAE, plus interest, Deutsche Boerse said in a statement.
If the assets themselves cannot be recovered, the Iranian institution wants damages in the same amount. The long-running, complex case involves some $2.0 billion frozen in Clearstream accounts while court cases against Iran are heard in the US and Luxembourg, as well as some $1.9 billion Clearstream has already transferred to the US based on a 2013 court ruling.
That judgement claims that Iran is ordered to compensate around 1,000 American plaintiffs, including families of some 214 soldiers killed in a double suicide bombing in Lebanese capital Beirut in 1983 that claimed 299 lives. Victims of a 1996 attack in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans were also compensated.
“Clearstream believes that the claims against it are unfounded,” Deutsche Boerse said in its statement.
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