Chinese Firm Takes U.S. Banks to Court Over Pre-Sanction Payment Freeze

Chinese fuel trader HY Energy is suing U.S. banking giants JP Morgan and Citigroup for blocked payments to a Chinese oil firm a year before the latter was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for dealing with Iranian oil, Bloomberg reports. HY Energy, a regional fuel trader in eastern China, alleges in two separate lawsuits filed in Shanghai and Beijing that JP Morgan and Citi failed to process and complete transfers for a total of $40 million to China Oil and Petroleum Company Limited (COPC) back in 2023. This was months before COPC was designated…