BNP Paribas pleads guilty to sanction violations

BNP Paribas pleaded guilty on Monday to two criminal charges and agreed to pay $8.9 billion (€6.5 billion) in a broad agreement with US authorities over charges the French bank violated US sanctions laws.

A lawyer for BNP briefly appeared in New York state court and pleaded guilty to one count of falsifying business records and one count of conspiracy. Assistant District Attorney Ted Starishevsky said the bank engaged in a "long-term, multi-jurisdictional conspiracy" to violate sanctions laws by facilitating transactions involving Sudan, Cuba, and Iran.

“This conduct, this conspiracy was known and condoned at the highest levels of BNP,” Starishevsky said.

The bank’s general counsel, Georges Dirani, told the judge that BNP took steps to evade sanctions between 2004 and 2012 that the United States imposed on Sudan, Cuba and Iran.

US authorities have been examining whether BNP Paribas evaded US sanctions, in part by stripping identifying information from wire transfers so they could pass through the US financial system without raising red flags.

The New York state banking regulator said BNP Paribas will suspend certain parts of its US dollar-clearing operations for one year, as part of a larger settlement for evading US sanctions laws.

The New York State Department of Financial Services, headed by Benjamin Lawsky, had proposed the ban as one condition for not revoking BNP’s license to operate in New York.

The French bank is also paying $8.9 billion to federal and state authorities and agreed to terminate some senior executives, the New York State Department of Financial Services said in a statement.

The temporary dollar-clearing ban is due to start on January 1st, 2015, and is an unprecedented punishment. It’s unclear if the French bank will lose a significant number of clients due to the ban.

The ban largely impacts BNP’s oil and gas finance business. The state regulator also said 13 individuals will leave the bank as part of the settlement, including chief operating officer Georges Chodron de Courcel.

BNP’s settlement is a setback for the bank, which largely weathered the US and European financial crises. It comes after failed attempts by French politicians to avert a guilty plea, which they feared would have ripple effects through the country’s economy. – (Reuters)