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Extracted Text (OCR)
834
dant Dallah Al Baraka Group, which is
chaired by Defendant Saleh Abdullah Ka-
mel. Saudi American Bank is close to the
Saudi Bin Laden family, ... appears on its
financial transactions” and provides bank-
ing services to its Sudanese operations.
Ashton Complaint 11 607-8; Burnett Com-
plaint 19 144, 146.
“In the year 2000, the Saudi American
Bank participated in the fundraising cam-
paign in Saudi Arabia for collecting dona-
tions to the ‘heroes of the Al Quds upris-
ing’ (Intifada) by providing a bank account
and facilities to receive donations for a
committee of charity organizations includ-
ing Defendants WAMY, ITRO and Al Har-
amain Foundation.” Ashton Complaint
1609; Burnett Complaint { 147.
The essence of Plaintiffs’ claim is that
through its relationships with other banks
and support of the Saudi Binladin group’s
work in Sudan, Saudi American Bank pro-
vided material support to al Qaeda. It is
not alleged to have done anything to di-
rectly support al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden,
or their terrorist agenda. As the Court
has stated before, there can be no bank
liability for injuries caused by money rou-
tinely passing through the bank. Saudi
American Bank is not alleged to have
known that anything relating to terrorism
was occurring through the services it pro-
vided. The Ashton Plaintiffs have dis-
missed their claims against Ahmed Nur Ali
Jumale, allegedly an associate of Osama
bin Laden. To the extent the Burnett
Plaintiffs continue their claims against
him, his employment at Saudi American
Bank from 1979 to 1986 cannot be grounds
for relief. Osama bin Laden did not orga-
nize al Qaeda until the late 1980s, Saudi
American Bank is not alleged to have pro-
vided Jumale with a veil of legitimacy or
shelter. Cf Burnett I, 274 F.Supp.2d at
104 (finding Al Haramain’s employment of
al Qaeda operative during height of al
349 FEDERAL SUPPLEMENT, 2d SERIES
Qaeda activity a sufficient allegation of
providing material support). The com-
plaints have provided Saudi American
Bank with no notice of Plaintiffs’ claims or
grounds for relief. Accordingly, Saudi
American Bank’s motions to dismiss the
Ashton and Burnett complaints are grant-
ed in their entirety.
3. Arab Bank
[97] The Federal Plaintiffs claim Arab
Bank is a financial institution headquar-
tered in Egypt with branch offices
throughout the world, including New York.
Federal Complaint 1357. Arab Bank
claims it is actually a Jordanian bank
headquartered in Amman, Jordan. Arab
Bank allegedly has “long provided finan-
cial services and other forms of material
support to terrorist organizations, includ-
ing al Qaeda.” Federal Complaint 1358.
Further, these Plaintiffs allege that the
September 11 attacks were a “direct, in-
tended and foreseeable product of Arab
Bank’s participation in al Qaeda’s jihadist
campaign.” Jd. 11364, 363. These claims
are based on the allegation that Arab Bank
has “long known that accounts it main-
tained were being used to solicit and trans-
fer funds to terrorist organizations [and
despite this knowledge] Arab Bank has
continued to maintain those accounts.” Id.
1362. Specifically, the Federal Plaintiffs
claim Arab Bank accounts have been used
for al Qaeda money transfers throughout
the world and that Arab Bank maintains
accounts for Defendant charities including
IIRO, MWL, WAMY, BIF, Blessed Relief
(Muwaffaq) Foundation, and Al Haramain.
Id. 19359, 360. Israeli officials allegedly
have seized funds associated with several
Arab Bank accounts maintained on behalf
of known fronts for Hamas and identified
by Arab Bank employees, “confirming the
bank’s specific knowledge that accounts it
maintained were being used to sponsor
terrorist activity.” d. 1361.
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