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Fine against BNP Paribas for money laundering in context of their financial statements

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Previously discussed that maybe BNP Paribas got off easy for illegally laundering $190 billion.

This post will give some context to the fine.

The $8,973M fine is equal to 6,593M Euros.

For the rest of this article, all amounts are in millions of Euros.

The bulk of the evasion of sanctions ran from 2002 through 2009 but continued into 2012, well after the bank knew the investigation was underway. That is concentrated on 8 years but stretched out to about 11 years. Let’s assume the volume was actually dropping in ’11 and ’12 so it is essentially a 10 year run of money laundering.

That means the fine was paid in one year, but it is an accumulation of 10 years activity. Thus we can amortize the fine over 10 years

Fine in relation to financial statements

Let’s look at the fine in relation to the 2013 consolidated financial statements, which can be found here on this page of their website.

Balance sheet (page 126)

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Fine against BNP Paribas for money laundering in context of their financial statementsRead More »

Fine against BNP Paribas for money laundering in context of their financial statements Read More »

Total BNP Paribas fine is $8.97 billion for money laundering

1 Comment / Fraud, Other stuff /

I previously mentioned the total penalty BNP Paribas agreed to pay for laundering money to evade U.S. trade sanctions was $8,833.6M. The updated WSJ article said the total settlement is $8.97B. After realizing the disconnect, I went back to the federal plea deal. I missed that amount until this morning.

The forfeiture is $8,833.6M, which represents the amount the feds say on page 1 of the plea deal is …

Total BNP Paribas fine is $8.97 billion for money launderingRead More »

Total BNP Paribas fine is $8.97 billion for money laundering Read More »

BNP Paribas nearing settlement for $30B of money laundering. Getting a bargain at $8B penalty?

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The Wall Street Journal reports BNP Near Settlement With U.S. for Up to $9 Billion.

The article says the bank and U.S. prosecutors have agreed on the broad terms of the settlement, which would include:

  • Penalty in range of $8B to $9B
  • Plead guilty to one criminal charge
  • Ban on dollar settlement, likely in range of several months
  • Firing of at least 30 employees

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BNP Paribas nearing settlement for $30B of money laundering. Getting a bargain at $8B penalty?Read More »

BNP Paribas nearing settlement for $30B of money laundering. Getting a bargain at $8B penalty? Read More »

Watching and learning from the money laundering cases

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Those of us auditors outside the huge firms may not have to deal directly with the impact of banks engaging in money laundering, yet we can still learn by watching.  Here’s the background in one sentence –  – Many of the largest banks were systematically ignoring U.S. laws against sending money into certain countries.

On my other blog, Nonprofit Update, I have several posts discussing the mess.

Of interest to me as an auditor is the apparently intentional violation of laws and how the corporate tone at the top could have prevented the fiasco.

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Watching and learning from the money laundering casesRead More »

Watching and learning from the money laundering cases Read More »

Another multi-billion fine for Wells Fargo – $3.7 billion this time.

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Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Been a while since I tuned into the shenanigans at Wells Fargo. A mere 100 million here and another 100 million there just doesn’t break into the headlines. Well this time is 3.7 billion. Yeah, billion with a B.

12/20/22 – Wall Street Journal – Wells Fargo to Pay Record CFPB Fine to Settle Allegations It Harmed Customers – Wells was able to combine a variety of violations into one big settlement. They closed out a number of investigations with this multibillion settlement.

Range of issues includes “illegally assessed” fees and interest on car loans and home loans. Overdraft fees were improperly applied. Some vehicles were repossessed as a result of the shenanigans. Overdraft fees replied even though there is enough money to cover the transactions.

Settlement consists of $2 billion restitution and a $1.7 billion fine from CFPB, which is a record for the agency.

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Another multi-billion fine for Wells Fargo – $3.7 billion this time.Read More »

Another multi-billion fine for Wells Fargo – $3.7 billion this time. Read More »

Another major investigation of bank secrecy: Pandora Papers.

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Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Looks like there is another flood of reporting ready to appear in print on bank secrecy and hiding wealth.

This project will be called the Pandora Papers.

If you recall, a major series of reports back in the 2016 timeframe described money laundering efforts flowing through one particular law firm in Panama. You can read my comments on the coverage.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) brought together around 600 journalists from about 150 media outlets to analyze a data leak with 2.94 TB of info. That’s terabytes, as in thousands of gigabytes.

The ICIJ kickoff summary was published on 11/3/21: Pandora Papers: An offshore data tsunami.

If you are at all interested in offshore banking, or money laundering, or the world-far-away of hiding or relocating wealth even without nefarious intent, you will want to pay attention.

Looks like there will be a lot of coverage, what with 330 politicians and 130 people on the Forbes billionaire list showing up in the data.

From a first glance, it looks like this project have as one focus the structure of banks and professionals that service this market.

Another major investigation of bank secrecy: Pandora Papers. Read More »

Recap of fines for major banking fiascos.

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Image doing that to seventy billion dollars. Intentionally. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

It is so sad to say, but a reality never-the-less, there are so many major banking fiascos with such a wide range of willing participants that it is impossible to keep straight the players and disasters and fines based just on memory.

So, that means I have a spreadsheet to track the willful disasters I’ve been following.

My tally does not include all the billions of dollars paid to settle mortgage issues arising from the Great Recession. That is another massive set of disasters all by itself.

Here is my running tally of the amount of stockholder equity wasted for a range of different debacles. Amounts in millions of dollars:

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Recap of fines for major banking fiascos.Read More »

Recap of fines for major banking fiascos. Read More »

Yet another banking fiasco. This time Goldman Sachs

Leave a Comment / Fraud /

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

There is a long list of banking scandals in the last decade or so with a long list of banks choosing to play in each of the fiascos.  Plenty of banks have joined multiple schemes.

The time I’ve allocated to watching the apparently unending disasters has been concentrated on the money laundering and interest rate / exchange rate / pricing manipulation messes, along with the unending variations of cheat-your-customer plans at Wells Fargo.

Until now I’ve not been focused on the bribery disaster involving 1MDB’s shenanigans in Malaysia. If you’ve not tuned in, you can categorize this mess in the international corruption and bribery sector of bank fiascos.

Goldman Sachs was apparently full-in with the bribes and corruption. Wall Street Journal on 10/22/20 summarizes the mess:  Goldman Pays Billions – And Takes Millions From Top Execs – To End 1MDB Scandal.

On 10/23/20 Goldman settled up with the U.S. and several other national governments. The bank agreed to clawback $174M from several executives.

They also admitted breaking U.S. corruption laws, specifically with a plea of guilty to charges of conspiring to violate antibribery laws. To keep the parent company in business it was actually a subsidiary of Goldman who entered a guilty plea. Only two executives have been hit with criminal charges.

The feds say billions were stolen from 1MDB and bribes aggregating $1.6B were paid to various government officials around the world.

Financial penalties paid by Goldman:

  • $2.9B – US Department of Justice and other regulators around the world
  • $2.5B – government of Malaysia
  • $0.154B – Federal Reserve Bank
  • $5.545B – total of above

From browsing headlines it looks like there are a few other fines but those are in the mere $50M or so range. Chump change for the big banks.

So, five and a half billion dollars of stockholder money burned by bribery and corruption. The irritated populists will loudly remind us that only two executives, merely two, have drawn criminal charges in the U.S.

Yet another banking fiasco. This time Goldman Sachs Read More »

Getting caught up on the cost of big bank fiascos – part 2

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Interior of Concord stage coach, Three people sat on each of the two benches round the clock, for many days, getting out to stretch their legs and grab a bite to eat only during a swap of horses. Photo at Wells Fargo’s San Diego museum by James Ulvog.

Previous post mentioned I’ve fallen far behind on covering the fines and penalties on the big banks for their massive fiascos.

Here is a list of some messes happening since I was last discussing their messes:

11/19/18 – Reuters – Société Generale to pay $1.4 billion to settle cases in the US – French bank agreed to $1.34B fine for laundering money to Cuba and other countries on the prohibited list. Paid an additional $95M other anti-money laundering violations.

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Getting caught up on the cost of big bank fiascos – part 2Read More »

Getting caught up on the cost of big bank fiascos – part 2 Read More »

Getting caught up on the cost of big bank fiascos – part 1

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Close up of stage coach. Strong box would be stored behind driver’s feet. Photo at Wells Fargo’s San Diego museum by James Ulvog.

For well over a year and a half lots of life has been happening to me. Have had to set priorities on what I can and cannot do, which means I’ve not been focusing on the ongoing fiascos and foolishness and waste as the big banks get caught with a never ending list of laws they have violated in stupendously spectacular ways.

Yet another in a string of money laundering settlements hit the news yesterday which drew my attention. So, I’ll try to do a little catch-up on the billions of stockholder dollars the big money banks have been continually throwing on the bonfire over the last two years.

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Getting caught up on the cost of big bank fiascos – part 1Read More »

Getting caught up on the cost of big bank fiascos – part 1 Read More »