Families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan may sue Standard Chartered over Taliban bomb claims

The families of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan are threatening to sue a UK bank over claims it financed a firm that helped Taliban bomb-makers slay hundreds of troops.

Standard Chartered Bank, which sponsors Liverpool FC, allegedly ignored British and US military officials’ warnings about links between the Taliban and a Pakistani fertiliser company the bank is accused of providing with loans.

Bereaved relatives of hundreds of American military personnel are suing the bank in the US. Now British families who lost loved ones in improvised explosive device (IED) attacks want to take similar action in the UK.

Lawyer Ryan Sparacino, who leads the American lawsuits, said: ‘By any objective measure, Standard Chartered is on the shortlist for dirtiest banks in history. It has the blood of thousands of US and UK heroes on its hands. My clients will impose justice on it.’

Angela Jones, from Warrington, whose son Private Thomas Sephton, 20, died after an IED blast in 2010, added: ‘I hold this bank culpable. I will be considering legal action because why should Standard Chartered get away with this?’

VICTIMS: Sergeant Peter Rayner, who was killed in Afghanistan, with his son Derek

Private Thomas Sephton (right) with his mother Angela (left)

Private Thomas Sephton (right) with his mother Angela (left)

Ms Jones, 59, said Mercian Regiment soldier Thomas was blown up after ‘he saw a wire and turned to his patrol and told them to get back, but the Taliban, who were hiding in a bush, detonated it. Thomas saved a mate’s life.’

Wendy Rayner, 52, from Bradford, whose husband Sergeant Peter Rayner, 34, was also killed by an IED in 2010, backed suing Standard Chartered, saying: ‘If you do not stand up against people like this they will keep getting away with it. They need to be held accountable in court. Only that will stop this.’

Sergeant Rayner, of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, who had a son, Derek, was on patrol after a comrade pulled out injured.

His widow said: ‘He wasn’t supposed to be going. He was asked by his captain, who was blown up just before Peter.

‘Peter knew it was dangerous. In the conversations we had he was really stressed because they kept sending them down these routes covered with IEDs.

‘He rang me and said they could see all these guys planting IEDs but they could not shoot them. They could not do anything. He probably saw the guy planting the IED that blew him up.’

Kirsty Cooper, sister of Lance Corporal Daniel Cooper, 21, of Hereford, who was blown up on patrol with The Rifles in 2010, added: ‘We’d like to take legal action. There appears to be no remorse.’

A total of 457 British military personnel died in Afghanistan with 224 killed by IEDs, which maimed countless more. A key component of IEDs was ammonium nitrate, which was derived from calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN), a fertiliser used by Afghanistan farmers. In 2011, the US military issued warnings that CAN from the large Pakistani corporation Fatima was the primary source of explosive material used by the Taliban.

The Washington Post quoted an unnamed British officer calling Fatima factories the ‘lone source of the problem in Afghanistan’.

Standard Chartered allegedly continued to provide foreign exchange and export finance services to Fatima Group until at least 2014

Standard Chartered allegedly continued to provide foreign exchange and export finance services to Fatima Group until at least 2014

Lance Corporal Daniel Cooper, from 3rd Battalion The Rifles, was killed by an explosion while on foot patrol in Afghanistan

Lance Corporal Daniel Cooper, from 3rd Battalion The Rifles, was killed by an explosion while on foot patrol in Afghanistan

Despite this, Standard Chartered allegedly continued to provide foreign exchange and export finance services to Fatima Group until at least 2014. Lieutenant General Mike Barbero, who led the US fight to wipe out IEDs in Afghanistan, told The Mail on Sunday he had confronted Standard Chartered about its alleged funding for Fatima Group in 2013.

He said that he ‘did not see any action or response’ from the bank and branded it ‘utterly useless’.

He said: ‘Anybody wounded or who lost a relative as a result of IEDs in Afghanistan should be angry especially with any British or US entity that enabled or at least looked the other way and did not care enough when presented with the evidence. It is shameful.’ One of the lawsuits filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act in the US is now before a New York court.

The claim states: ‘It would have been apparent to anybody looking that the CAN fertiliser bombs being deployed by terrorists in Afghanistan were made of fertiliser obtained from Pakistan, specifically from two related companies: Fatima Fertiliser Company and Pakarab Fertilisers.

‘This was so for two reasons. First, these companies had a monopoly or near-monopoly on the production of CAN fertiliser in Pakistan – and much of the CAN fertiliser flowing into Afghanistan was coming from Pakistan.

‘Second, Coalition forces were frequently seizing large stashes of CAN fertiliser, often in the original packaging bearing Fatima or Pakarab’s name, from terrorists.’

In 2019, Standard Chartered was fined £1 billion in the US for breaking sanctions on Iran after a criminal investigation was launched in the wake of revelations by British whistleblower Julian Knight, a former RAF pilot and senior figure at the bank.

Standard Chartered declined to comment.

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