JNS
The congresswoman told the bank that its offerings in MTN Group stock exposes Americans to “directly” financing “a company complicit in funding terrorism and antisemitic activities.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) sent a notice to Bank of New York Mellon, one of the world’s oldest banks, about dropping its ties to a South African telecommunications provider with a significant stake in Iran’s largest mobile operator.
The House Republican leadership’s chair penned the letter to the bank, one of the largest in the country with more than $52 trillion under custody and administration, on Wednesday. She stated that its ties to MTN Group are “deeply troubling and well-documented.”
The telecom company holds a 49% stake in Iran Cell, “which U.S. authorities and courts link directly to terrorist activities that resulted in the injury and death of American service members and civilians,” Stefanik wrote.
Bank of New York Mellon offers customers the chance to purchase stock in MTN Group through the American Depository Receipts program, which allows U.S. investors to buy and sell shares of companies not listed on U.S. stock exchanges.
The bank provides certificates that represent shares of a foreign company’s stock and can be traded as such.
Stefanik said that BNY Mellon is the top bank in the world for the number of sponsored ADR programs and is custodian of more than $341 billion in such assets.
“Recent reports and ongoing litigation have revealed MTN Group’s extensive ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the facilitation of funding and support for Iranian-sponsored terrorism,” Stefanik wrote.
The congresswoman noted that a federal district court in New York “recently affirmed claims against MTN under the Anti-Terrorism Act, marking a significant legal precedent confirming MTN’s complicity.”
She voiced concerns that Americans using the ADR program to purchase a certificate for MTN Group stock “directly exposes the American public to financially propping up a company complicit in funding terrorism and antisemitic activities.”
“This exposure is unacceptable and demands urgent corrective action,” she said. (JNS sought comment from Bank of New York Mellon.)
Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, is chair of MTN Group. Ramaphosa’s government lodged a “genocide” complaint against Israel in the International Court of Justice, the principal U.N. judicial arm based in The Hague, and has been heavily critical of Israel’s prosecution of the war.
South Africa has also voiced support for Hamas and the terror group’s benefactor, Iran, which Stefanik labeled as “an avowed sponsor of terrorism and antisemitism” that “poses profound ethical and geopolitical questions.”
Neither MTN Group nor any of its listed subsidiaries is under U.S. sanctions. It is unclear whether any federal agencies are tracking the issue with MTN Group or whether any agency overseeing the ADR program could disallow banks from purchasing MTN Group’s stocks through ADR.
