French bank found complicit in genocide
A US federal jury has found French banking giant BNP Paribas liable for aiding genocide in Sudan, ruling that its operations strengthened the government in a conflict that killed thousands and displaced millions in the African country.
The verdict in Manhattan on Friday followed years of litigation over the bank processing transactions in violation of US sanctions on Sudan. The civil case was filed in 2016 on behalf of Sudanese refugees living in the US.
At the trial, the plaintiffs presented evidence that BNP Paribas moved billions through the US financial system for Sudanese state entities between 2002 and 2008, enabling the regime of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to preserve oil revenues and import supplies as security forces and allied militias waged a campaign of mass violence.
The case centered on Darfur, where, beginning in 2003, government forces and Janjaweed militias targeted non-Arab communities. More than 300,000 people were killed, and about 2.5 million were displaced during the conflict, UN estimates show.
The court has ordered BNP Paribas to pay a total of $20.45 million in damages to three Sudanese-born plaintiffs.
“This verdict is a victory for justice and accountability… Our clients lost everything to a campaign of destruction fueled by US dollars, that BNP Paribas facilitated and that should have been stopped,” Bobby DiCello, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, stated.
A spokesperson for BNP Paribas, Europe’s second-largest bank, reportedly rejected the verdict, arguing Sudan had alternative funding sources and the bank’s conduct did not directly enable abuses.
“This result is clearly wrong and there are very strong grounds to appeal the verdict, which is based on a distortion of controlling Swiss law and ignores important evidence the bank was not permitted to introduce,” the spokesman said, according to Reuters.
The bank previously pleaded guilty in the US in 2014 to criminal charges for processing transactions for Sudan, Iran, and Cuba in violation of sanctions, and paid about $8.97 billion in penalties.
The verdict comes amid a brutal war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which jointly ousted Bashir in a 2019 coup and led a fragile transitional government before fracturing in April 2023.
