BNP Paribas, a French bank. The French Bank. They ran afoul of THE US of A's Justice Department(Eric Holder, Head). After some` years of investigations, the hammer fell today in western Europe. The bank, and its 200,000 employees, agreed to a fine payable to the USA in the amount of $8,900,000,000.(10 places, 8 zeros-count 'em). That's 8.9 billions of dollars. Lots of money you say? Well, yes, to most of us.
But to a bank that is too big to fail, it represents a part of its business, not all. So, have they learned their lesson? Was anybody jailed? Anybody jump off the Eiffel Tower? Apparently not.
President Francois Hollande made a few calls to the White House, but to no avail. How sad.
In 2007, then President of the bank, Baudouin Prot, gave the order to cease all transactions with Sudan, then Iran, then Cuba. That order followed the visit to France of Special Envoy and Treasury Undersecretary for terrorism, Stuart Levey, who informed France and 40 other European banks to abide by US embargoes, especially with Iran.
Investigators uncovered evidence that bank employees took steps to cover up their dealings with the listed countries. So, now, CEO of BNP, Jean-Laurent Bannafe' has his hands full(and a bit tied up). THe COO, Georges Chodron de Courcel, will step down today, June 30.
CEO Bonnafe' gave a statement today to his employees:" Let me put it clearly; we will be severely punished". "Because some malfunctions occurred and mistakes were made."
"Because some malfunctions occurred and mistakes were made"
"Because some malfunctions occurred and mistakes were made"
"Because some malfunctions occurred and mistakes were made"
And the US Treasury is 8.9 billions to the good. This fine comes on the heels of fines levied against Lloyds Banking group PLC and Credit Suisse Group AG, paying penalties of only $350 millions and $536 millions.
Nobody's going to jail, again.
Bankers: gotta luv'em.
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