Pilatus Bank chairman pleads not guilty in US court

The chairman of Pilatus Bank, Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he was involved in a scheme intended to evade US sanctions against Iran.

Hashemi Nejad, 38, is accused of funnelling more than $115 million from a Venezuelan company to an Iranian company, through the US financial system, and using Swiss and Turkish entities to conceal the Iranian connection to the funds.

The Iranian banker entered his plea at a court hearing in New York on Wednesday but was refused a request for bail, with Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses arguing that his wealth made it likely that he would flee the US.

This was rebutted by Andrew Bauer, his lawyer, who argued that he unlikely to do so, given that he was married to a US citizen, and was a resident of the country.

Hashemi Nejad was arrested last week after investigations by the US that identified him as the person at the centre of an Iranian conglomerate that had to build 7,000 housing units in Venezuela in exchange for almost half a billion dollars.

Prosecutors told the court that the construction deal was the result of an agreement between the governments of Iran and Venezuela.

Lawyers representing Hashemi Nejad however argued that the payments had not been made for the benefit of Iran’s government, and that his father at even been imprisoned in Iran for opposing the government.

On Wednesday, the Malta Financial Services Authority removed Hashemi Nejad from chairman of Pilatus bank, placing an a competent person to take charge of the bank’s assets in his stead.

The bank has also been barred from liquidating, disposing, transferring or dealing with its clients’ assets and monies by the financial services regulator.