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Macau bank will appeal US decision to cut financial ties

A Macau bank said yesterday it would challenge a US decision to cut ties between the lender and the US financial system because of allegations the company helped North Korea launder money and handle counterfeit currency.

The small family-owned Banco Delta Asia also denied that it "knew or suspected" that its North Korean customers were engaged in illegal activities, said Stanley Au, chairman of Delta Asia Group. The bank is a unit of the group.

The once little-known bank became a key issue in the six-nation talks about North Korea's nuclear weapons program after the US allegations were announced in 2005. Macau regulators froze US$25 million in North Korean assets held by the lender, enraging the North Koreans, who boycotted the nuclear talks for more than a year.

But last month, Washington promised to resolve the bank's blacklisting, raising expectations that some of the US$25 million in North Korean deposits would be unfrozen.

On Wednesday, the US Treasury Department stuck to its view that the bank was involved in North Korea's illegal activities. Officials also said the lender wouldn't have access to the US financial system.

But a US delegation planned to discuss the matter with Macau's government this weekend.

Au said his group "expects Banco Delta Asia to continue to appeal against the US rule making."

He said that it was up to Macau's government to decide how to handle the North Korean money.

"The disposal of these funds is beyond my concern and responsibility," he said.

Au said that Banco Delta Asia closed the North Korean accounts after the US allegations were announced in 2005.

The bank has had no contact with North Korea since then and it had no plans to resume ties, he said.

The businessman said he was not worried about the bank's future because the lender has already been cut off from the US financial system since 2005 and has been doing fine.
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