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A federal jury in new york A nearly $21 million judgment has been awarded against France’s largest bank for providing the Sudanese government with access to the US financial system because it was involved in atrocities two decades ago.
The woman and two men who received judgments against BNP Paribas SA are US citizens who left Sudan after being displaced after losing their homes and property. They were each awarded between $6.7 million and $7.3 million on Friday after jurors deliberated for about four hours.
In an August 28 pre-trial memo, the plaintiffs argued that BNP Paribas helped the Sudanese government “carry out one of the most notorious campaigns of oppression in modern history.”
His attorney Adam Levitt said Saturday, “They are very satisfied that steps are being taken toward justice, and they are pleased that the bank is being held accountable for its egregious conduct.”
Messages seeking comment were left with the bank’s press contacts on Saturday. Other news outlets reported that a bank spokesperson described the decision as “clearly wrong” and said that “there are very strong grounds for appealing the decision.”
The bank had argued that Sudan had other sources of funding and that the company had not knowingly helped the government commit human rights abuses under the former president. Omar al-Bashir,
BNP Paribas provided Sudanese authorities with access to international currency markets from at least 2002 to 2008. More than 300,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million driven from their homes in the Darfur region over the past few years. The lawsuit relates to government operations in several 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 accused International Criminal Court Those charged with crimes that include genocide but have not been handed over to face justice in The Hague.
Sudan plunged into civil war more than two years ago, leading to what aid organizations have described as one of the world’s worst displacement and hunger crises.
lawyers For French The bank argued it had no liability, saying in an August court filing that, “Human rights abuses in Sudan did not begin with the BNPP, did not end when the BNPP left Sudan, and were not caused by the BNPP.”
BNP Paribas never participated in any way in Sudanese military transactions, they wrote – it never financed Sudan’s arms purchases, and there is no evidence linking any specific transaction to the plaintiffs’ injuries.
Levitt, the plaintiffs’ attorney, called the case a “bellwether trial,” the findings of which he hopes to apply to other Sudanese refugees, the 23,000 U.S. citizens who are members of the class-action case.
In 2014, BNP Paribas agreed to pay about $9 billion to settle a case by entering a guilty plea in New York and acknowledging that it processed billions of dollars of transactions for clients in Sudan as well as Cuba and Iran.