US jury issues $20M verdict against French bank BNP Paribas over Sudanese atrocities

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A federal jury in New York has issued a nearly $21 million verdict against France's largest bank for giving the Sudanese government access to the U.S. financial system as it engaged in atrocities two decades ago.

The woman and two men who obtained the verdict against BNP Paribas S.A. are U.S. citizens who left Sudan after being displaced, losing their homes and property. They were awarded amounts of between $6.7 million and $7.3 million apiece on Friday after jurors deliberated for about four hours.

In an Aug. 28 pretrial memo, the plaintiffs argued BNP Paribas helped the Sudanese government “carry out one of the most notorious campaigns of persecution in modern history.”

“They're very gratified that steps on the road toward justice are being achieved, and they're happy that the bank is being held responsible for its abhorrent conduct,” their lawyer, Adam Levitt, said Saturday.

A spokesperson for BNP Paribas said in an email the result “is clearly wrong and there are very strong grounds to appeal the verdict” and that the bank had not been allowed to introduce important evidence.

The bank argued Sudan had other sources of money and that the company did not knowingly help the government engage in human rights abuses under former President Omar al-Bashir.

BNP Paribas gave Sudanese authorities access to international money markets from at least 2002 to 2008. As many as 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million driven from their homes in the Darfur region over the years. The litigation pertains to government actions in many parts of the country.

Al-Bashir is being held in a military-run detention facility in northern Sudan, his lawyer said earlier this month. He has been charged by the International Criminal Court with crimes that include genocide but has not been handed over to face justice in The Hague. Sudan plunged into a civil war more than two years ago, sparking what aid organizations have described as one of the world’s worst displacement and hunger crises.

Lawyers for the French bank argued it did not have liability, saying in an August court filing that, “Human rights abuses in Sudan did not start with BNPP, did not end when BNPP left Sudan, and were not caused by BNPP.”

BNP Paribas, they wrote, ”never participated in Sudanese military transactions in any way — it never financed Sudan’s purchase of arms, and there is no evidence linking any specific transaction to Plaintiffs’ injuries.”

Levitt, the plaintiffs' attorney, called the case a “bellwether trial" with findings he hopes to apply to other Sudanese refugees, 23,000 U.S. citizens, who are members of the class-action case.

The BNP spokesperson said the verdict was specific to the three plaintiffs and “should not have broader application beyond this decision.”

In 2014, BNP Paribas agree to pay nearly $9 billion to settle a case by entering a guilty plea in New York and acknowledging it processed billions of dollars in transactions for clients in Sudan as well as Cuba and Iran.