Global banking giant BNP Paribas has agreed to plead guilty to violations of federal money laundering laws and pay $8.9 billion in penalties following an investigation into whether the bank processed payments and provided access to United States markets to entities from countries subject to U.S. economic sanctions.
According to a press release from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the bank will enter a guilty plea to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act by processing billions of dollars of transactions through the U.S. financial system on behalf of Sudanese, Iranian and Cuban entities subject to U.S. economic sanctions.
“BNPP employees ”“ with the knowledge of multiple senior executives ”“ engaged in a long-standing scheme that illegally funneled money to countries involved in terrorism and genocide,” said Benjamin M. Lawsky, superintendent of the New York state Department of Financial Services, in a press release distributed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office.
According to the FBI press release, court documents show how over the course of eight years, BNPP knowingly and willfully moved more than $8.8 billion through the U.S. financial system on behalf of sanctioned entities, including more than $4.3 billion in transactions involving entities that were specifically designated by the U.S. government as being cut off from the U.S. financial system.
BNPP used sophisticated schemes designed to conceal from U.S. regulators the true nature of the illicit transactions, the press release said, including routing illegal payments through third-party financial institutions, instructing other financial institutions not to mention the names of sanctioned entities in payments sent through the U.S. and removing references to sanctioned entities from payment messages.
As part of the $8.9 billion in penalties, BNP Paribas will pay the state Department of Financial Services $2.4 billion, terminate 13 executives and discipline 32 other employees, and be suspended from dollar-clearing operations through its New York branch for one year.
