WASHINGTON: The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) has won a high-profile terror-financing case in New York’s Federal Court, avoiding a potential bankruptcy.

Media reports and diplomatic sources said the plaintiff, Harold Brown Sr, withdrew the case, dropping all charges against the bank.

NBP officials in New York and Washington, however, were mysteriously silent on this major win.

There was no one in the NBP’s main office in New York, except a receptionist, and the branch office in Washington had no information.

The bank would have faced the grim prospect of going into bankruptcy had the decision gone against it.

The case against NBP was being handled by the International Disputes Unit of the Attorney General’s Office. Earlier this year, the US Federal Reserve Board had announced a $20.4 million penalty against the NBP.

The New York Department of Financial Services also fined the bank $35 million for repeated compliance failures, taking the combined penalties to $55 million.

In his filing, the plaintiff alleged that NBP provided financial support and banking services to several notorious terrorist groups and terrorist fundraisers, among them, Al Qaeda.

The judge dismissed the complaint with leave to "replead" and directed the parties to appear for the initial case management conference on April 2, 2021.

It was apparently after this conference that the plaintiff agreed to withdraw the charges.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2022