On June 10, 2014 Arab Bank filed a supplement brief in support of the Bank’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari in Linde v. Arab Bank, PLC concurring with the U.S. Government’s comprehensive critique of the sanctions imposed on the Bank. The Bank’s petition asks the Court to review whether the Second Circuit erred when it failed to vacate trial sanctions imposed by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York for non-production of records that were restricted by foreign bank privacy laws, the violation of which would subject the Bank to criminal prosecution.
Arab Bank’s supplemental brief agrees with the U.S. Solicitor General’s conclusion that the “lower courts erred in several significant respects,” including by performing an “erroneous” comity analysis, assuming that petitioner’s previous production of documents to United Stated government agencies reflected selective compliance, failing to consider the broad range of United States foreign-relations and anti-terrorism interests, and failing to accord sufficient weight to foreign bank privacy laws. However, the Bank’s brief argues that these significant errors require immediate review by the Court.
The Bank’s supplemental brief is supported by a diplomatic note sent by the Kingdom of Jordan to the U.S. Department of State, protesting the Solicitor General’s suggestion that the district court’s “flawed” and “erroneous” order could be fixed at some later date.
The Court will consider the case at the Justices’ June 26 Conference.
Read the Bank’s supplemental brief here.
Read the Solicitor General’s brief here.