Slaughters joins Sullivan legend Cohen on Standard Chartered advice
Slaughter and May and Sullivan & Cromwell have won roles advising Standard Chartered Bank following allegations by a New York regulator that it had concealed $250bn of transactions with the Iranian government.
Rodgin Cohen
The UK and US duo have been instructed to represent the UK bank in dealings with authorities, according to Reuters, after the New York state Department of Financial Services (DFS) issued an order claiming it had hidden roughly 60,000 deals for Iranian clients totalling $250bn between 2001 and 2010, producing “hundreds of millions of dollars” in fees for the bank.
Standard Chartered issued a statement on Monday (6 August) in response to the allegations, claiming it had “voluntarily approached all relevant US agencies, including the DFS, and informed them that we had initiated a review of historical US dollar transactions and their compliance with US sanctions”.
It added that the review had been “conducted by external counsel and external consultants”.
It is understood that the Sullivan team includes high-profile financial regulatory partner and senior chairman Rodgin Cohen.
Cohen was a leading light during the financial crisis that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, winning numerous high-profile instructions. He advised US mortgage giant Fannie Mae (15 September 2008) and insurance group AIG (17 September 2008) on their government bailouts, guided JPMorgan through its acquisition of Washington Mutual (26 September 2008) and acted for Wachovia on its buyout by Citigroup (29 September 2008).
Readers' comments (2)
Julian Summerhayes | 8-Aug-2012 3:59 pm
Love the email that was reportedly sent between the UK bank and the US (today's Times). Such choice words. Should be very interesting to see what is left of the bank's reputation once all the evidence comes to light.
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Bojo | 8-Aug-2012 5:51 pm
It's time somebody stood up to the yanks and give them a right spanking. Mark my words, Lawsky (despite the name) got the law wrong and will be eating his unsavory words in the coming months. Well done Standard Chartered for being "Here for good".
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