Families of US terror victims sue to block Biden Administration from releasing $40 billion in frozen Iran accounts

US terror victims hold billions in unsatisfied judgments against Iran

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, September 7, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- Families of Iranian terror victims sue to block the Biden Administration from releasing $40 billion in frozen Iranian accounts under prisoner release deal

US terror victims hold billions in unsatisfied judgments against Iran

(NEW YORK) A group of American victims of Iranian terrorism, who hold more than $400 million dollars in court judgments against the Islamic Republic for its sponsorship of terrorist attacks, have moved to enjoin the Biden Administration from releasing an estimated $40 billion in frozen Iranian assets. The United States has pledged to unfreeze the funds belonging to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), which are primarily held in overseas bank accounts, under an upcoming prisoner release agreement being currently negotiated with Tehran. The families claim that releasing the funds will prevent them from enforcing their judgments against these assets, and as a practical matter may preclude them from ever collecting on their judgments. The families assert that blocking Iranian assets through sanctions imposed for heinous terrorism provides terror victims leverage to make Iran pay their judgments, so releasing blocked Iranian assets deprives the families of leverage to make Iran pay.

Two dozen plaintiffs filed the lawsuit today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit names the U.S. State Department and Treasury Department as well as Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin as respondents.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the terror victims by attorneys Robert J. Tolchin of New York and Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of Tel, Aviv, Israel who represent the families.

According to news reports the U.S. and Iran, which is holding five Iranian-Americans in prison in Tehran and has demanded the release of the frozen funds as a ransom, have been moving towards a deal that would see $40 billion in Iran assets returned to the Iranian regime. Recently, Tehran transferred the five captives to house arrest and in exchange for this gesture; the US agreed to initially release several billion dollars in Iranian assets that have been frozen in South Korea. It is speculated that the U.S. and Iran are on the verge of a full agreement that will return the prisoners home in exchange for unfreezing of additional Iranian bank accounts.

The families’ judgments stem from deadly attacks, including suicide bombings, stabbings, car ramming attacks, and drive-by shootings, committed from 2001-2016 by Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestine Islamic Jihad, Iran's terrorist proxies, in which the terror-victim plaintiffs were harmed. In addition to the American families bringing the petition for the injunction against the State Department and Department of Treasury, there are many additional families of terror victims who have won judgments against Iran in court that have never been paid.

The lawsuit comes as Iran has increased its funding of terrorism all across the Middle East and has been engaged in a years-long campaign of brutal killings, arrests and human rights violations in a nationwide crackdown against its own population.

The families of the terror victims also fear that the released billions will be utilized by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which provides financial support and weapons to the terrorist groups, to fund waves of future rocket and bombing attacks. They are adamant that other innocent American families should not endure the tragedies their families suffered.

The lawsuit notes that the families holding judgments have been trying, some for more than a decade, to locate and execute against Iranian assets. The bank accounts currently frozen by the Treasury are not located in the United States, but rather held by the CBI in foreign bank accounts. According to the court papers the sanctions that freeze these Iranian assets should be lifted only if President Biden is able to certify to Congress that Iran no longer funds terrorism, the lawsuit says.

Lifting the sanctions would ease some of the tremendous economic strain Iran has been subjected to as a result of the American imposed sanctions. Despite these financial difficulties, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has continued to funnel billions of government dollars each year to its terrorist proxies around the globe.

"It would be outrageous to release the $40 billion in frozen Iranian funds when these American families have unpaid court judgments against the terror sponsoring regime in Tehran handed down by American courts" stated attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner.

"For more than a decade Iran has refused to pay these court judgments and has thumbed its nose at these terror-victim families and the U.S. court system. The billions in frozen funds is the last leverage the families have to compel Iran to satisfy their judgments. If you release these funds you erase all hope for the families of ever getting a measure of justice against this outlaw regime."

"The U.S. encouraged these families, grievously harmed by terrorism, to file lawsuits against Iran and now the government has a moral duty to assist them in collecting on their judgments. To release the funds to terrorist Tehran instead of turning them over to the victims would make a farce out of this hard fought legal process."

According to attorney Robert J. Tolchin: “We all want the five suffering American captives being cruelly held as bargaining chips by Iran to be released as quickly as possible. But the burden of any deal with Iran to secure the release of the hostages, however wise or unwise the deal, needs to rest on the nation as a whole, not solely on a small group of victims of Iranian terror who have already suffered so much. If ransom money is being transferred to Iran to secure the release of certain victims of the Iranian regime being held hostage there, that money should not be taken away from other victims of Iran’s atrocities. Leave this money for the victims, which is what Congress intended when it enacted legislation to allow terror victims to enforce their judgments against blocked assets of state sponsors of terrorism.”

For further information, please contact Shurat HaDin at +1-917-519-9340.
EMAIL: [email protected]

Nitsana Darsan-Leitner
Shurat HaDin Law Center
+1 917-519-9340
[email protected]