Previous comments were ‘both legally and factually incorrect’

Standard Chartered accused of latest money laundering scandal

Standard Chartered chairman Sir John Peace has been forced to issue an apology for “inaccurate” comments made regarding the bank’s breach of US trade sanctions.

Peace said earlier this month that Chartered “had no willful act to avoid sanctions”, according to the BBC.

Peace said his earlier comments had been “legally and factually incorrect”.

“I made certain statements that I very much regret and that were at best inaccurate,” he said.

“My statement that [Standard Chartered] ‘had no willful act to avoid sanctions’ was wrong and directly contradicts [the bank’s] acceptance of responsibility in the deferred prosecution agreement.

“[We] retract the comment I made as both legally and factually incorrect.

“To be clear, Standard Chartered unequivocally acknowledges and accepts responsibility, on behalf of the bank and its employees, for past knowing and willful criminal conduct in violating US economic sanctions laws and regulations,” Peace said.

Sanction violations in question occurred between 2001 and 2007 and involved transactions with Iran, Burma and other countries subject to US sanctions.

Previously, the bank had said the transactions were ‘clerical errors’.