Bank of China denies helping wire funds to anti-Israel terrorists

HONG KONG-The Bank of China, one of China's big four banks, said Thursday that accusations its U.S. branch transferred funds to terrorists in the Middle East are unsubstantiated."The allegations are unsubstantiated nonsense," bank spokesman Wang Zhaowen said in Beijing while announcing the bank's results for the first half of the year."We are ready to go to court and right the wrong, we believe the court in the United States will find out the truth as soon as possible," he said in a live telecast seen in Hong Kong.About 100 Israeli victims of terrorism reportedly filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court last week claiming the Bank of China transferred millions of dollars to militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, thus facilitating terrorist attacks between 2004 and 2007.Wang confirmed that the bank's Los Angeles branch has received a court subpoena and letter from the plaintiffs.According to report, an April 2005 meeting between Israeli officials, Chinese public security officials and officials of China's central bank, the Peoples Bank of China, had not stopped the bank from making more transfers.Wang did not confirm whether such a meeting was held, but repeated the official response released earlier saying the bank might consider counter legal action against the plaintiffs.On financial results, the bank has reported "steady growth" with a net profit of 42.18 billion yuan ($6.18 billion) for the first six month in 2008, up 42.8 percent year-on-year.As of June 30, the bank held about $5.47 billion in U.S. subprime mortgage-related debt securities. Zhu Min, the bank's executive vice president, said bonds issued and guaranteed by the two major U.S. mortgage companies, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which were held by the bank have been reduced to about $12.67 billion as of Monday from about $17.29 billion as of June 30. "The subprime-led economic slowdown in the U.S. will continue and we will further strengthen risk management to control the risks," Zhu said.The bank's president Li Lihui said the U.S. mortgage bonds the bank holds "will not bring significant financial impacts" on the bank's second half results.
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