BNP Paribas to Pay $140 Million Fine in Sanctions Case

BNP Paribas SA will pay a fine of $140 million and face a five-year probation for violating U.S. sanctions, putting its total financial penalty in the high-profile cast at nearly $9 billion.

Paris-based BNP agreed last year to plead guilty and forfeit the $8.83 billion it moved through the U.S. financial system on behalf of sanctioned Sudanese, Iranian and Cuban entities.

This is the first time a financial institution has been sentenced based on violating U.S. economic sanctions and the penalty is the largest ever imposed in a criminal case.

Of the more than $8 billion moved through the system, more than $4.3 billion involved specifically designated as cut off from the financial system. The violations happened from about 2004 through 2012.

The bank set up an intricate web of "satellite banks" designed to disguise its role in illicit transactions, according to the government complaint. For instance, a Sudanese bank seeking to move U.S. dollars out of Sudan transferred funds internally within a BNP satellite bank, which then transferred the money to the Sudanese bank's "intended beneficiary" without reference to the Sudanese bank.

At the time, BNP cut ties with 13 employees. No employees face criminal charges, though 45 employees were disciplined in some fashion, ranging from termination to warnings, according to court documents filed in connection with the settlement.

"BNP deliberately disregarded the law and provided rogue nations, and Sudan in particular, with vital access to the global financial system, helping that country's lawless government to harbor and support terrorists and to persecute its own people," said assistant attorney general Leslie R. Caldwell.

Write to Angela Chen at [e-mail]

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