By Yoon Ja-young
American prosecutors are investigating The Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) over a 2012 deal involving Iran.
IBK has stressed that the Korean prosecution wrapped up its probe into the same case without finding any wrongdoing.
An intermediary trading company set up by a Korean-American told IBK it would import marble from Dubai to export to Iran, IBK said.
IBK said the trading company had submitted all documents needed for such transactions, and the bank was involved in 87 company deals worth $996 million.
The trading company then withdrew about 1 trillion won from the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) account at IBK, but sent the money to third-party accounts in nine countries, not the marble-exporting company in Dubai.
The Seoul prosecution examined the incident and accused the company’s owner of violating the foreign exchange trading act. The Korean-American made about a 17 billion won commission.
The prosecution, however, determined that IBK had not violated the law as it had followed all due procedures, based on documents the trading company submitted.
However, in an audit of IBK in September of last year, the Financial Supervisory Service levied a penalty on an IBK employee for not checking the deal thoroughly.
When a trading company sends money to a third-party instead of the exporter, it has to notify the Bank of Korea beforehand. The IBK employee failed to do that.
Except for this, the IBK stressed that it had followed all due procedures.
“The marble wasn’t on the export ban list, and the company handed in all documents, including a payment order by the CBI and paper from the shipping company,” an IBK spokesperson said.
He said that the U.S. prosecution seemed to be checking the deal because it involved a U.S. citizen who sent the money to third-party accounts.
Since 2010, businesses have been barred from dollar transactions with Iranian companies.
They have to use another route that the U.S. left open for the trade — a Korean won-based account that Korea and Iran agreed to use for such purposes as settling Iranian oil import deals.
CBI has Korean won accounts at IBK and Woori, Korea’s two state-owned banks. Korean companies that want to import oil from Iran put money into the CBI account.
Korean companies that export products to Iran get their money from the CBI’s account at IBK or Woori Bank.
The CBI is the only route for financial transactions between Korean and Iranian companies.