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Page Number: 9

Cite as:  584 U. S. ____ (2018) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

I 

A 

Petitioners  are  plaintiffs  in  five  ATS  lawsuits  filed 
against Arab Bank in the United States District Court for 
the  Eastern  District  of  New  York.    The  suits  were  filed 
between 2004 and 2010. 

A  significant  majority  of  the  plaintiffs  in  these  law-
suits—about  6,000  of  them—are  foreign  nationals  whose 
claims  arise  under  the  ATS.  These  foreign  nationals  are 
petitioners  here.  They  allege  that  they  or  their  family 
members  were  injured  by  terrorist  attacks  in  the  Middle 
East  over  a  10-year  period.    Two  of  the  five  lawsuits  also 
included claims brought by American nationals under the
Anti-Terrorism Act, 18 U. S. C. §2333(a), but those claims
are not at issue. 

Arab  Bank  is  a  major  Jordanian  financial  institution 
with  branches  throughout  the  world,  including  in  New 
York.  According  to  the  Kingdom  of  Jordan,  Arab  Bank 
“accounts  for  between  one-fifth  and  one-third  of  the  total 
market  capitalization  of  the  Amman  Stock  Exchange.” 
Brief for Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as Amicus Curiae 
2.  Petitioners  allege  that  Arab  Bank  helped  finance  at-
tacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups.  Among other
claims,  petitioners  allege  that  Arab  Bank  maintained 
bank  accounts  for  terrorists  and  their  front  groups  and
allowed  the  accounts  to  be  used  to  pay  the  families  of 
suicide bombers. 

Most  of  petitioners’  allegations  involve  conduct  that
occurred in the Middle East.  Yet petitioners allege as well 
that Arab Bank used its New York branch to clear dollar-
denominated  transactions  through  the  Clearing  House
Interbank  Payments  System.    That  elaborate  system  is
commonly referred to as CHIPS.  It is alleged that some of 
these CHIPS transactions benefited terrorists. 

Foreign  banks  often  use  dollar-clearing  transactions  to 
facilitate  currency  exchanges  or  to  make  payments  in