Societe Generale settled its longstanding sanctions violations case with U.S. authorities, entering a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors and paying $1.34 billion to regulators in New York and Washington.
As part of the settlement announced on Monday, France's third-largest bank acknowledged violations of U.S. sanctions laws against Iran, Sudan and Cuba starting as far back as 2003 and extending to 2013. According to a consent order filed by New York's Department of Financial Services, the bank executed more than 2,600 outbound payments during this period, valued around $8.3 billion, in violation of U.S. sanctions laws.
The bank agreed to pay $1.34 billion in all to resolve the settlement, the U.S. Federal Reserve said in a statement. In addition to paying $717 million to the U.S. Justice Department, the bank will pay $420 million to New York's Department of Financial Services, $163 million to the Manhattan District Attorney's office, $81 million to the U.S. Federal Reserve and $54 million to the U.S. Treasury.
"Societe Generale has admitted its willful violations of U.S. sanctions laws — and longtime concealment of those violations — which resulted in billions of dollars of illicit funds flowing through the U.S. financial system," said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman in Manhattan, who announced the settlement.
SocGen resolved two other U.S. investigations — relating to bribery in Libya and the manipulation of interest rates — for a total of $1.3 billion in June.
