The families of British soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan are suing Standard Chartered Bank, alleging that the bank provided financial services to a Pakistani company which allegedly supplied the Taliban with bomb-making materials.
According to the Daily Mail, the families’ lawsuit alleges that Standard Chartered provided foreign exchange and export finance services to Fatima Group, a Pakistani company that produces ammonium nitrate, a key component of IEDs.
In 2011, the Daily Mail reports, US and British military believed Fatima Group was the Taliban’s main source of explosive material, with a British officer calling the company the “lone source of the problem in Afghanistan”.
A similar lawsuit has been underway in the US. Ryan Sparacino, who leads it told the Daily Mail that: “By any objective measure, Standard Chartered is on the shortlist for dirtiest banks in history. It has the blood of thousands of US and UK heroes on its hands. My clients will impose justice on it.”
Angela Jones, whose son was killed by an IED blast in Afghanistan, said: “I hold this bank culpable. I will be considering legal action because why should Standard Chartered get away with this?”
Standard Charter has not commented.
