Embassy Row

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Banking problems

The Sudanese ambassador said yesterday that he closed his embassy because of banking problems, not the daily demonstrations outside the diplomatic mission.

Sudan used Riggs Bank in Washington until the bank closed its embassy banking division amid a federal investigation into suspected illegal transactions.

"It is extremely difficult for us to function. We cannot pay our employees or our bills," Ambassador Khidir Haroun Ahmed told Embassy Row.

He said the bank refunded the money in the embassy's account in the form of cashier's checks, but added that he cannot cash them because the embassy no longer has a bank account.

The ambassador said he has spent months trying to find another bank that will handle embassy accounts.

Mr. Ahmed said Riggs notified him in June that it would cease embassy banking soon.

"A Riggs vice president told me there was no problem with Sudan, but they were closing all of the embassy accounts," Mr. Ahmed said.

The Treasury Department has accused Riggs of failing to report "suspicious activities and banking transactions."

Mr. Ahmed said his decision to close the embassy "had nothing to do with the demonstrations," such as one yesterday in which actor Danny Glover and others were arrested for illegally entering embassy grounds.