In a landmark verdict, a New York federal jury on Friday found BNP Paribas SA, France’s largest bank, liable for aiding and enabling genocide committed under former Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir, awarding $20 million in damages to three Sudanese refugees.
The decision marks a historic legal precedent, opening the door for tens of thousands of Sudanese survivors living in the United States to pursue potentially billions of dollars in civil recovery. The verdict is one of the first cases in history holding a global financial institution civilly responsible for facilitating a government accused of crimes against humanity.
The Verdict
After a five-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, jurors awarded:
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$7.3 million to Entesar Osman Kashef
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$6.7 million to Abulgasim Abdalla
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$6.75 million to Turjuman Adam
The jury concluded that each plaintiff “proved beyond a preponderant likelihood” that BNP Paribas is liable for its role in the atrocities committed against Black African civilians in Sudan’s Darfur region between 1997 and 2011.
The case was brought in 2016 by U.S.-based Sudanese refugees, following BNP Paribas’ 2015 guilty plea to violating U.S. sanctions by processing billions of dollars in transactions for Sudan, Iran, and Cuba. The bank paid a $9 billion criminal penalty, one of the largest in U.S. history.
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