PARIS, April 2 (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs told its Paris staff they could work remotely on Thursday following a foiled bomb attack on Bank of America Paris offices last Saturday, a source familiar with the matter said, while Citigroup staff in Paris and Frankfurt are also working remotely.
French authorities have placed four suspects in pre-trial detention over the plot, which potentially had links to Iran.
The Paris police authority did not immediately reply to a request seeking comment, while the Paris prosecutor’s office declined to comment.
Citigroup’s is a precautionary measure, the group said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
French anti-terrorism prosecutors said late on Wednesday the four suspects — three teenagers aged 16 and 17 and one adult — were placed under formal investigation on suspicion of manufacturing, transporting and handling an explosive device and attempting to destroy property as part of a terrorist organisation.
The device, a five-litre petrol can taped to a large pyrotechnic charge containing a 650-gram active-material cylinder, was the most powerful of its kind ever identified in France and could have generated “a powerful fireball several meters in diameter,” the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said late on Wednesday.
Investigators established the adult recruited the teenagers, paying them between 500 and 1,000 euros ($580-$1,160) to plant and film the device. All four denied terrorist intent.
France suspects the attack is linked to HAYI, a pro-Iranian group that had posted a video on March 23 specifically naming Bank of America’s Paris headquarters, though prosecutors said the link has not yet been formally established.
(Reporting by Anousha Sakoui and Mathieu Rosemain. Editing by Inti Landauro and Jane Merriman)
