Hatch demands answers on the ‘$99,999,999.99’ payments

After months of evading questions, the Obama administration finally admitted it paid Iran $1.7 billion in cash, in three installments, to settle a 1979 transaction in which Iran paid for U.S. military equipment that it never received. The two countries agreed that the U.S. owed Iran $1.3 billion in interest, and it was discovered that about $1.3 billion was paid out of the U.S. Judgment Fund in January, through 13 payments of $99,999,999.99.

But Obama administration officials have never said whether the Judgment Fund was used to settle with Iran, and Hatch’s letter to the Treasury IG asks for details about those payments.

“Please provide to the committee a copy of any certification and/or payment request to the Treasury Department in connection with the 13 payments that the Department of State requested from the Judgment Fund, including supporting documentation that was submitted, which must have included a copy of the judgment or settlement agreement,” he wrote in a letter to Treasury IG Eric Thorson.

Hatch also indicated that if the 13 payments do reflect interested the U.S. owed Iran, they were not coded in the Judgment Fund as interest payments, and asked why that would be the case. He also asked for the names of the people or institutions who received the payments, and asked how the money was turned into cash.

“If the 13 payments were made to settle a claim by Iran against the U.S., were there any instructions accompanying or associated with the payments out of the Judgment Fund to convert the electronic balances that were sent into hard currency to be delivered to agents of the Iranian government?” he asked.

Republicans have been furious about the payment to Iran, in particular because they fear sending cash to Iran will make it easy for that country to use it to fund terrorist activities around the world.

Hatch asked for a response by Oct. 12.