News
With $9 Billion Tab, BNP Paribas Pleads Guilty to Three Criminal Counts
By Colby Adams and Kira Zalan
printBNP Paribas pleaded guilty and agreed to pay nearly $9 billion to settle charges that it knowingly violated U.S. sanctions against four nations despite previous warnings from American officials. From 2004 to 2012, France's largest bank conspired to move at least $8.97 billion through the United States on behalf of individuals and corporations included on American sanctions lists, BNP admitted Monday. The bank obscured the role of blacklisted clients in the transactions by omitting incriminating data on interbank messages. In a statement, the Federal Reserve said it had barred BNP Paribas from rehiring 11 former employees involved in the violations...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
Dozens of U.S. enforcement actions initiated in recent years in response to AML and sanctions-related violations are all at least partially predicated on the same mistake: banks deciding to onboard lucrative, but unacceptably high-risk clients over the objections of their compliance departments.
This time last December, one might reasonably have expected that 2014 would be a year of modest changes for the anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance sector. Then came JPMorgan Chase, BNP Paribas and a convoy of Russian tanks to quash that notion.
Reports that Benjamin Lawsky will step down early next year as superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services highlight how time can paradoxically seem to pass both quickly and slowly, almost simultaneously.
Bank of America is asking clients from four blacklisted nations to submit additional identification documents and prove that they permanently reside outside of their home countries, ACAMS moneylaundering.com has learned.
With the ink hardly dry on BNP Paribas' guilty pleas, U.S. officials are looking into "a fair amount of conduct" by other financial institutions that could result in formal charges, according to Douglas Leff, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's New York field office.
The Supreme Court nears a ruling on the long-running Arab Bank case, FATF spares Afghanistan from its blacklist, and more, in this week's news roundup.
As U.S. officials and bankers debate the merits and drawbacks of an expected $10 billion sanctions settlement with BNP Paribas, their French counterparts are offering a more unified response: outrage.
Belgium has launched a money laundering investigation of Swiss Bank UBS AG, tens of thousands of financial institutions have registered under FATCA, and more, in the midweek roundup.
Venture capitalists have invested nearly $11 million in Bitcoin businesses in Canada since the currency's inception in 2009, U.S. authorities are allegedly seeking more than $10 billion from BNP Paribas SA to settle charges that the bank violated sanctions, and more, in this week's roundup.
A former prime minister of Curacao was detained in the island-nation on suspicion of money laundering, four senior executives at a publically-traded real estate company in Israel were arrested for allegedly laundering money, and more, in the midweek roundup.
The U.K.'s SFO froze approximately $23 million in an investigation examining alleged corruption in Ukraine, seventy-nine individuals have been arrested in Israel for alleged drug trafficking and money laundering, and more, in the midweek roundup.
Singapore will bolster client identification requirements for exchangers of digital currency, Hong Kong's fifth richest man was sentenced to five years in jail for bribery and money laundering, and more, in this week's roundup.
Ongoing negotiations between U.S. officials and France's largest bank that could result in a monetary settlement of more than $1 billion involve violations of sanctions against Iran and Sudan, say sources.
A law enforcement and regulatory probe into potential sanctions violations by BNP Paribas centers on transactions tied to Sudan, according to an individual with direct knowledge of the matter.