Overview
- An eight-member Manhattan federal jury concluded the bank’s services were a natural and adequate cause of the plaintiffs’ harms after a five-week trial overseen by Judge Alvin Hellerstein.
- Jurors heard that BNP Paribas provided letters of credit and other banking services that sustained Sudan’s export revenues during Omar al-Bashir’s rule in violation of U.S. sanctions.
- The three plaintiffs, all now U.S. citizens, received individual awards ranging from about $6.4 million to $7.3 million for abuses they testified they suffered.
- BNP Paribas called the verdict "clearly wrong," said it will appeal, and argued the decision misapplies Swiss law and fails to show a causal link to the injuries.
- The case follows the bank’s 2014 U.S. guilty plea and $8.97 billion penalty for processing transactions for sanctioned countries, including Sudan.