BNP agreed to plead
guilty to criminal charges and pay an $8.9 billion penalty, a record sum
for a bank accused of doing business with countries that face United
States sanctions. State and federal authorities portrayed BNP, the
seventh bank to settle a criminal sanctions violation case but the first
to plead guilty, as the worst offender.
Like other banks, BNP
hid the names of Sudanese and Iranian clients when sending transactions
through its New York operations and the broader American financial
system. But the wrongdoing was more pervasive at BNP, the authorities
found, stretching from at least 2002 into 2012, by which time the
investigation was already in full swing.
“This conspiracy was known and condoned at the highest levels of BNP,” Edward Starishevsky http://news.yahoo.com/video/bnp-pleads-guilty-pay-8-231828509.html
