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U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Beirut Marine Barracks Bombing CaseThis release is distributed on behalf of Fay-Perles Law Firm, Washington, DC. The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to review a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that upheld U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest's 2013 ruling that $1.8 billion in Iranian funds be awarded to 1300 American families as part of a multi- billion dollar judgment against Iran for its role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Marines, soldiers, and sailors and injured hundreds more. The Court's decision went counter to a brief filed by the United States Solicitor General urging that the request of the Central Bank of Iran, also known as Ban Markazi be denied. After the U.S. Treasury Department discovered the funds at a major American bank in June 2008 when the families of victims of Iranian acts of state-sponsored terrorism seized the funds. The families named Iran and several banks, including Citibank, N.A., Iran's state-controlled Bank Markazi, Deutsche Bourse AG's Clearstream Banking SA unit and Rome-based Banca UBAE in their suit. The suit claimed the banks, in a series of orchestrated transactions and sanctions, assisted Iran to hide its money and ultimately transfer funds out of the U.S. banking system. Judge Forrest ruled the families were entitled to the money, and placed the funds in a special trust account administered by former Judge Stanley Sporkin, where it remains. Attorneys for the families pledged they will defend their clients' claims before the Supreme Court "with the same intensity we have exercised over the last 14 years of litigation."
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