US
lawyer: Iran secretly controls NYC office building
By Associated Press |
Posted: Tue 2:56 PM, May 30, 2017
NEW
YORK (AP) -- A U.S. government lawyer has told
a New York jury that a Manhattan office building near Rockefeller Center has
long been illegally run by Iran.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin Bell made
the comment opening statements Tuesday in a civil trial.
The Justice Department is asking the jury
to conclude that the 36-story building and other properties should be forfeited
to the U.S. government, because they were being used to evade U.S. sanctions
against Iran.
Bell says Iran has secretly controlled the
building for years.
He says it let a partnership made up of a
charity and a front company for an Iranian bank funnel millions of dollars in
rent payments to it.
Lawyers for the building's owners are
expected to speak to jurors later.