By Kevin McCauley
Saylor Company is helping to promote an effort to block Deutsche Borse Group’s bid to acquire a 60 percent stake in the New York Stock Exchange because of the German exchange’s alleged ties to Iran.
It is working on behalf of the surviving victims and family members of the 1983 terror bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut. They won a $2.7B judgment against Iran for its role in the terror attack.
In a lawsuit filed in New York, the group contends that Clearstream Banking, a unit of DBG, funneled $250 in Iranian funds outside the U.S. financial system to avoid the reach of U.S. courts.
The group is appealing to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who chairs the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., to block the DBG move on the NYSE.
"It is incredible to us that the committee would give its approval to Deutsche Borse's merger with the NYSE. We believe Clearstream's movement of Iranian Government assets through the United States financial system is a direct security threat to our Nation," the group wrote. "Having the NYSE essentially become a sister company to Clearstream Banking, SA undermines the sanctions against Iran your Department has worked so hard to implement."
CFIUS approved the deal in August.
Copies of the letter were sent to chairman and ranking members of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees and key Cabinet members.
The European Union expects to rule on the DBG/NYSE deal in December.
Mark Saylor is working under the director of the family’s legal counsel Thomas Fortune Fay. He is the former Los Angeles Times editor who was at Sitrick and company before setting up his own shop.
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