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James Owens, et al., Appellants v. WELLS FARGO BANK
United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.
ESTATE OF Jeremy Isadore LEVIN, et al., Appellees James Owens, et al., Appellants v. WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A. and United States of America, Appellees
No. 23-7080
Decided: September 26, 2025
Before: Katsas, Walker, and Garcia, Circuit Judges.
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An instrumentality of the Islamic Republic of Iran wired nearly $10 million through an American bank. The United States blocked the funds pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and then initiated a civil-forfeiture action against them. Plaintiffs, who hold judgments against Iran for supporting terrorism, later sought to attach those same funds in order to execute their judgments. The district court quashed the attachments on two independent grounds: First, the funds...
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1) This extremely consequential D.C. Circuit opinion deals with the funds that were the subject of License No. MUL-2022-367813-1, 2, and breaks with the law of other circuits in holding that the issuance of forfeiture licenses by OFAC to the DOJ does not take funds outside the scope of those that can be attached and turned over pursuant to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. The license at issue kept the funds blocked except insofar as a “valid forfeiture order” was obtained. The court rejected the argument that an “OFAC license authorizing any use unfreezes otherwise blocked funds.” Other circuits (opinions of which are cited by the Court here) had held that OFAC issuance of limited-scope specific license for the forfeiture of funds takes such funds outside the scope of “blocked assets” for