A federal appeals court on Wednesday affirmed a decision ordering nearly $2 billion held in frozen New York bank accounts to be handed over to claimants who sued Iran over its role in multiple acts of terrorism. Iran had appealed the decision last fall.
The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit paves the way for the largest single recovery of sovereign assets by victims of state-sponsored terrorism to date, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs. More than 1,200 victims of terrorism or their surviving families stand to share in the funds, which amount to roughly $1.9 billion including interest. The money has been frozen for years in New York while ownership of the assets—and the right of the victims to seize them under a panoply of U.S. terror laws—was exhaustively litigated.
