December 2, 2010, 5:58PM ET

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9JS29902.htm

VIENNA

Two Austrian banks disputed any wrongdoing Thursday following the release of U.S. cables by whistleblower website Wikileaks that linked them to terrorist financing, money laundering and other suspicious activities.

In the two cables dating back to 2005 and 2006, the U.S. Embassy in the Austrian capital of Vienna addressed a range of what they called "questionable transactions" by Bank Austria Creditanstalt and Raiffeisen Zentralbank, now known as Bank Austria and Raiffeisen Bank International.

According to concerns voiced in the secret correspondence, Bank Austria Creditanstalt facilitated about "a dozen Iranian transactions, mostly nuclear related." The diplomats also said there were indications that North Korea moved several million euros in October 2006 to Creditanstalt from Banco Delta Asia, a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau. In 2005, the U.S. imposed financial restrictions on Banco Delta Asia over allegations it helped North Korea with money laundering.

The cables said an organization known as the Palestinian Association of Austria (PVOE), described as collecting donations on behalf of charities affiliated with Hamas, maintained a Creditanstalt account. Hamas is an Palestinian militant movement considered a terrorist organization by the United States and others.

According to what appeared to be unnamed Austrian authorities cited in the cables, Bank Austria Creditanstalt had closed all its PVOE accounts well before the group was designated a terrorist entity by the U.S. and that the country's Financial Market Authority was satisfied that Creditanstalt had not engaged in any questionable or illegal activity regarding Iran.

The Austrian finance ministry said Feb. 15, 2006 that Bank Austria Creditanstalt "has agreed to 'stop doing business' with North Korean entities," the documents added.

Raiffeisen allegedly received a large sum from an unnamed former official of Saddam Hussein's regime aimed at financing Iraqi insurgents, according to another "concern" raised in one of the cables.

Michael Palzer, spokesman for Raiffeisen Bank International, said the matters raised in the cables were looked into long ago and cleared up.

"These issues that were a concern of U.S. authorities years ago were discussed in their entirety and solved," Palzer said.

The bank proved that no transfer was made by the unnamed former Iraqi official, Palzer said.

Bank Austria spokesman Martin Halama said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press that the bank never did anything illegal.

"The bank was never at any time in conflict with the relevant sanctions imposed by the U.N. and the European Union, such as those which are in place for money laundering, combating terrorism, etc.," the statement said. "The bank complied with the relevant Austrian legal provisions in all respects."