FT reports a US investigation into potential sanctions violations has expanded to nine European banks, with authorities suspecting that some of the money transferred through the American banking system might have been used to finance Iran's nuclear and missile programmes. Investigators have found an e-mail indicating that Iranian interests were trying to buy tungsten, which is used for making long-range missiles, said Robert Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, who has been conducting the joint investigation with US federal prosecutors. "There was an order for 30,000 metric tonnes of tungsten that would take care of every refrigerator in the Middle East and then some," Mr Morgenthau told the FT. "It was not being purchased, we think, for domestic consumption ... Tungsten was not used for making refrigerators but for long-range missiles. That is our supposition." The e-mail has emerged as part of a broader investigation into whether foreign banks have been engaging in the practice of "stripping" wire transfer information that would otherwise show that the transfers were originating from prohibited sources. Washington prevents certain countries, including Iran, from accessing the US banking system through sanctions.
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