French banking giant to pay $1.4 billion to settle cases in the U.S.
French banking giant Societe Generale on Monday agreed to pay U.S. federal and state authorities $1.4 billion to resolve pending legal disputes, Reuters reports.
The bank agreed to pay $1.34 billion to settle investigations into its handling dollar transactions in violation of U.S. sanctions against Cuba and other countries, the bank and the U.S. authorities said in separate statements.
Additionally, the bank said it agreed to pay $95 million to settle another dispute over violations of anti-money laundering regulations.
SocGen, as the bank is informally known, has been dogged for more than a year by a series of costly legal disputes. The last case it said remained to be settled was the one related to dollar transfers made on behalf of entities in countries subject to the U.S. economic sanctions.
“We acknowledge and regret the shortcomings that were identified in these settlements, and have cooperated with the U.S. Authorities to resolve these matters,” the bank’s Chief Executive Frederic Oudea said in a statement.
“These resolutions, following on the heels of the resolution of other investigations earlier this year, allow the Bank to close a chapter on our most important historical disputes,” he added.
From 2003 to 2013, the bank executed billions of dollars in illegal transactions to parties in countries subject to embargoes or otherwise sanctioned by the United States, including Iran, Sudan, Cuba and Libya, the authorities said.
The $1.34 billion in penalties is the second largest imposed on a bank for violating U.S. sanctions, according to the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office.
SocGen’s French rival BNP Paribas agreed to pay $8.9 billion in a settlement on sanction violations in 2015.
SocGen has also signed deferred prosecution agreements, which provide that, following a three-year probation period, the bank will not be prosecuted if it abides by the terms of the agreements.