A Manhattan federal jury found BNP Paribas liable for enabling genocide in Sudan under the Omar al-Bashir regime, raising speculation it could face a multibillion-dollar settlement, Bloomberg reported.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Sudanese refugees who allege BNP Paribas deliberately facilitated billions of dollars in U.S.-currency transactions for Sudan’s government, enabling ethnic cleansing, displacement and mass killing.
The verdict, announced Friday, awarded about USD $21 million to three plaintiffs—Abulgasim Abdalla, Entesar Osman Kashef and Turjuman Adam—in a bellwether trial tied to claims by more than 20,000 Sudanese now living in the United States, according to a statement from Hausfeld cited by the news agency.
Bloomberg Intelligence senior litigation analyst Elliott Stein said the ruling increases pressure on the bank to settle, “and for amounts much higher than estimated.”
“We can’t rule out a possible settlement of as much as $10 billion,” Stein said in a note cited by the report.
BNP Paribas denied being under pressure to settle and said it intends to appeal, arguing the decision ignores important evidence it was not allowed to present, Bloomberg said.
Friday’s decision comes more than a decade after BNP Paribas pleaded guilty in 2014 to violating U.S. sanctions on Sudan, Iran and Cuba and agreed to pay nearly $9 billion.
Read more at Bloomberg