How You Can Help Address Discriminatory Bank Practices 

As you may be aware, U.S. financial institutions have recently closed the accounts of many Iranian Americans without providing any explanation. We have taken this matter very seriously and have taken steps to address this matter.

To recap, the root of the bank account closure issue can be traced back to the fact that the U.S. government and the Department of the Treasury have failed to provide clear language for how and channels through which U.S. persons can carry out transactions with Iran that are clearly legal under current sanctions regulations, such as the receipt of family funds from Iran or the sale of inherited property. As such, when American persons of Iranian descent receive legal fund transfers from Iran, U.S. banks are given free rein to close those accounts under the guise of “suspicious” transactions. This is often true even when compliance documents citing the source and legality of funds have been submitted to the bank prior to each incoming wire. In short, due to U.S. sanctions, there is no transparent channel for Iranian Americans to receive legal funds from Iran without raising suspicion.

In an effort to urge the U.S. government to implement practices and policies to address this issue, our firm sent the attached letter to the U.S. Secretary of Treasury Dr. Janet Yellen, as well as other treasury officials, outlining the discriminatory bank account closures and the root causes that have led us here.

We are now asking for your support in bringing attention to this important cause. In addition to the treasury letter, our firm created a petition that members of the community can sign urging the U.S. Department of the Treasury to take action. Please sign this petition by clicking the link below and please share it with others so that we can demonstrate the wide impact of these discriminatory practices.

Petition Urging Treasury to Take Action

Furthermore, we are encouraging everyone to contact their congressional representatives to alert them of the problem at hand and to ask for their support in finding a just resolution. To make this process easier for you, we created a template summarizing the issue which you can use when contacting your representative. Click below to download the template:

Download Constituent letter

Please use the link below to find your congressional representatives. Once you do so, you can use the template we created to submit your grievances.

Find Your Congressional Representative

We hope you will take a few minutes and help us in bringing awareness to this unfortunate problem that is impacting so many Americans.

We are here if you have any questions or need any assistance.