Shares in Standard Chartered surged on Friday following news that the US government has dismissed whistleblower allegations regarding potential sanctions violations.
Claims concerning the banking giant's conduct had attracted scrutiny from US president Donald Trump, who posted a link to an article about the accusations from a far-right publication on Truth Social last week, as reported by .
This prompted Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik to demand an investigation into the FTSE 100 firm, causing its stock price to plummet.
Standard Chartered previously paid a total of $1.8bn in settlements to US and º£½ÇÊÓƵ regulators in 2012 and 2019 following findings that it had violated sanctions against Iran and other nations.
However, currency dealer Robert Marcellus and the bank's former global head of foreign exchange transaction banking, Julian Knight, claimed last year to have discovered evidence in documents submitted to the US government, which they alleged showed billions of dollars in undisclosed dealings with Iranian entities.
Knight and Marcellus contended that the government had misled a US court regarding its probe into the allegations.
They subsequently lodged an appeal after their claims were dismissed.
On Thursday, the US Department of Justice stated that the earlier ruling should be upheld by the appeals court, describing the fraud allegation as "entirely unfounded."
Shares in Standard Chartered climbed 3.7 per cent to 1,410p on Friday morning, marking an increase of over 40 per cent since the beginning of the year.
A spokesperson for Standard Chartered told The Times: "We are pleased and unsurprised by the DOJ's filing, which continues to demonstrate what we've always known: the claims underlying this case are false."
1MDB scandal lawsuit
The bank was recently embroiled in a $2.7bn lawsuit over its alleged involvement in one of the world's most significant financial fraud cases, known as the 1MBD scandal, last month.
The London-based lender stands accused of aiding in the movement and concealment of billions of dollars stolen from Malaysia's 1MDB fund, without adequately verifying the source or destination of the money.
From 2009 to 2013, it is alleged that Standard Chartered permitted over 100 suspicious transfers through its bank, despite red flags suggesting the money could be tied to illegal activity.
Those behind the lawsuit claim the bank failed to adhere to basic anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, arguing that if the bank had done so, it could have blocked or reported the transactions.
Standard Chartered has dismissed these allegations.
