A global settlement has been reached after years of litigation to compensate hundreds of victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism, with about $318 million derived from the sale of a Manhattan office tower secretly tied to an Iranian government-owned bank.
The Department of Justice said Monday in a news release the recovery stems from the forfeiture and sale of a prominent building in the heart of New York City that prosecutors determined had been covertly controlled for years by Bank Melli Iran despite U.S. sanctions.
The DOJ said those compensated will include victims and family members of the bombings of U.S. facilities in Beirut in the 1980s; the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.; and Iranian proxy terrorist organizations' attacks against civilians, including U.S. citizens, in Israel and elsewhere.
"This office's many years of determined litigation show our unrelenting commitment to victims' rights and have led to this significant recovery," Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in the release.
The building at 650 Fifth Avenue was originally constructed by a charitable foundation controlled by the former shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the DOJ said.
The new regime later took control of the foundation and created a partnership with Bank Melli Iran, which had been sanctioned by the U.S. for its role in financing Iran's weapons of mass destruction programs.
Bank Melli Iran controlled its interest in the building through front companies known as Assa that were established in the Isle of Man and New York, the DOJ said. The highest levels of the Iranian regime orchestrated the structure in the 1980s, including the Iranian Central Bank and the offices of Iran's prime minister and president.
The U.S. first moved to seize the building in 2008. In April 2014 and July 2017, the U.S. reached settlements with victims' groups so that any funds obtained through forfeiture would be distributed to them.
In July 2017 and May 2021, the U.S. and the victims' groups obtained judgments against Assa's interests in the building and related partnership distributions from the property's income.
In January 2025, the U.S., the victims' groups, and the building's owner reached a settlement providing for the dismissal of all remaining claims in exchange for $318 million to the victims' groups, including an initial payment of $129 million and a deferred payment of $189 million to be paid over three years, plus interest. The initial $129 million payment was completed March 20.
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an Israeli attorney and founder of Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center, told The Jerusalem Post that while the U.S. and Israel have targeted Iran's political leadership and military infrastructure in recent weeks, "the victims have been fighting on another critical front: seizing the regime's assets through the courts."
"This case is a powerful example of that effort," she said. "Remarkably, it resulted in a building in the heart of Manhattan, just steps from Trump Tower, being transferred into the hands of those targeted by anti-Israel and anti-Western terror.
"This case demonstrates how much the Iranian regime values its assets. They fought this litigation relentlessly for years, taking it all the way to the Supreme Court, only to ultimately lose to the victims they sought to evade.
"It is time for other countries to follow this model: to strip Iran of its immunity and allow terror victims to enforce their judgments against the regime's assets worldwide. This is how we can weaken Iran without conquering Tehran."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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