BNP Paribas liable for Sudan atrocities, Jury rules

A Manhattan jury has ordered BNP Paribas, a France based multinational bank and financial holding firm, to pay more than $20 million in damages to three Sudanese refugees, finding that the French bank was complicit in human rights abuses committed under Sudan’s former ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir.

The verdict marks a rare instance in which a global financial institution has been held liable for its role in facilitating atrocities. The three plaintiffs accused BNP Paribas of helping sustain Sudan’s repressive regime by providing access to U.S. financial markets and processing oil revenues that allegedly funded weapons used against civilians.

According to court filings, the jury awarded $7.3 million, $6.7 million, and $6.75 million to the three refugees, respectively. Their attorneys argued that BNP Paribas “turned a blind eye” to the al-Bashir government’s “genocidal” campaign, asserting that the bank’s financial dealings directly contributed to atrocities during Sudan’s civil conflicts of the 1990s and 2000s.

BNP Paribas rejected the verdict, calling it “clearly wrong.” The bank said it plans to appeal, contending that any damages should apply only to the three plaintiffs and not extend to a broader class of victims.

The case stems from BNP Paribas’s 2014 guilty plea to violating U.S. sanctions laws by processing billions of dollars in transactions for clients in sanctioned countries, including Sudan. BNP Paribas admitted to deliberately processing over $8.8 billion in transactions through the U.S. financial system between 2004 and 2012.

Most of these illicit transfers, around $6.4 billion, were linked to Sudan. Internal BNPP communications showed employees were aware of the Sudanese government’s ties to terrorism, yet the bank continued processing payments, including $4 billion for a Sudanese government-owned financial institution. To conceal these activities, BNPP employed a network of “satellite banks” that masked the identities of both BNPP and sanctioned entities.

Omar al-Bashir’s regime, which ruled Sudan from 1989 until his ouster in 2019, was notorious for authoritarian rule and systematic violence against civilians. Backed by the National Islamic Front, al-Bashir seized power in a military coup, dissolved parliament, banned political parties, and imposed strict authoritarian governance. His government was accused of orchestrating mass killings, rape, and forced displacement, particularly during the Darfur conflict, which began in 2003 and was later described as genocide.

Recently, one of the regime’s militia leaders, Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman — known as Ali Kushayb — was found guilty of more than 25 counts of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC issued arrest warrants for al-Bashir in 2009 and 2010 on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Despite those warrants, he remained in power for another decade before being deposed by mass protests in 2019.