BNP Hands Over Oil Trading Files to US Probe

French bank BNP Paribas, which is facing a potential $10bn fine for breaking US sanctions, has handed over to US investigators files covering many years of its dealings with leading companies in the oil market.

A dozen former BNP insiders and senior trading executives said it had in recent months handed over a host of documents relating to its oil dealings with Sudan and Iran, including details on trading houses’ and oil majors’ involvement in the trades.

Before now, all that had been known about the probe was that US authorities were investigating whether BNP evaded sanctions relating to Sudan, Iran and Cuba and if it stripped identifying information from related dollar wire transfers to be cleared by the US financial system.

They said BNP provided the lion’s share of trade financing to Chinese companies including Sinopec and CNPC, which were the main importers of Sudanese crude during the period. The Chinese companies declined to comment.

Sudan’s oil production rose from around 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2000 to a peak of almost 500,000bpd in 2010, according to US Energy Information Administration data.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Manhattan District Attorney declined to comment. “BNP has given all its files to the US authorities. The full Monty,” a former BNP Paribas insider said.

According to people familiar with the matter, US  authorities at one point suggested that BNP pay a penalty as high as $16bn, though more recently they have been discussing $10bn, which would still almost wipe out BNP’s entire 2013 pretax income.

BNP and other non-US-listed banks continued to finance oil trades in US dollars out of Sudan following the imposition of US sanctions in 1997, in the belief they were not violating those restrictions.

(thepeninsulaqatar.com  Edited by Topco)