YEREVAN, August 18 /ARKA/.  U.S. regulators are investigating claims Deutsche Bank and other global banks funneled billions of dollars for Iran, Sudan and other sanctioned nations, RIA Novosti reports citing The New York Times.

The probe is still in its very early stages, law enforcement officials told the Times, adding that Deutsche Bank was not believed to have moved funds on behalf of Iranian clients through its U.S. operations after 2008.

In 2007, the bank decided that it would “not engage in new business with counterparties in countries such as Iran, Syria, Sudan and North Korea and to exit existing business to the extent legally possible,” a spokesman told the newspaper.

The investigation of Deutsche Bank is among a series of cases against global financial firms since 2009 suggesting that financial firms often transferred money for Iranian banks and companies under a loophole in U.S. policy that ended in 2008, the Times noted. -0-