BNP Paribas shares drop after US court verdict on liability in Sudan atrocities

Shares in France’s biggest bank BNP Paribas dropped as much as 10% on Monday after a United States court verdict last week found it helped Sudan’s government commit genocide.

A New York federal jury on Friday ordered the bank to pay close to $21 million to three plaintiffs, who fled Sudan and are now US citizens.

They testified about human rights abuses perpetrated by the regime of former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir.

BNP Paribas gave Sudanese authorities access to international money markets in the 1990s and 2000s. Plaintiffs said these contracts helped the Sudanese government commit atrocities against its population.

In a statement on Monday, the bank said it would appeal the verdict and argued the decision should not lead to more compensation demands.

"Once again, BNP Paribas reaffirms that this result is clearly wrong and ignores important evidence the bank was not permitted to introduce," the statement read. "We are going to pursue all available avenues to contest this judgment."

But analysts said uncertainty over potential further claims or penalties weighed on BNP Paribas shares on Monday, and would likely continue to do so.

Lawyers for the three plaintiffs said the verdict opens the door for more than 20,000 Sudanese refugees in the US to seek billions of dollars in damages from the French bank.

During his three decades in power, Omar al-Bashir led a deeply authoritarian rule. His country was marred by several internal wars, including the war in Darfur.

Between 2003 and 2005, the Sudanese government’s attacks on Darfur killed around 200,000 civilians and displaced two million people, according to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The US government recognised the Darfur genocide in 2004.

The International Criminal Court indicted Bashir in 2009 on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, torture and rape. He was ousted from power in a 2019 coup.