MANAMA — Bahrain's High Criminal Court on Thursday sentenced three Future Bank officials to five years in prison each and to $1 million fines in the latest of a series of money-laundering cases by the Central Bank of Iran and other banks, the Bahrain News Agency reported. The court also sentenced the Central Bank of Iran and the other banks implicated in the wide money-laundering scheme to fines of $1 million each, General Advocate Nayef Youssef Mahmood said. The total of fines imposed on the Iran Central Bank, other Iranian banks, and the three Future Bank officials in seven cases reached $47 million. The court also ordered the confiscation of the illegally transferred money that reached $13 million. The Public Prosecution had previously announced that its investigations had revealed that the Central Bank of Iran planned to launder billions of dollars through the Future Bank that was established in Bahrain and controlled by two Iranian banks, Bank Melli Iran and Bank Saderat Iran, to pass suspicious financial transactions in favor of Iranian entities, mainly the Central Bank of Iran, in violation of laws and regulations. The Future Bank received requests for suspicious financial transfers in favor of the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks through the "SWIFT" system without reporting them, setting aside their sums or checking their legitimacy in an effort to conceal the identity of the Iranian bank. The scheme allowed the bank to make the transfers in violation of laws and regulations.
