Societe Generale SA and Barclays Plc not guilty of Money-Laundering
According to the decision made by a French court on December 11, Societe Generale SA and Barclays Plc were not guilty of money-laundering charges, but a regional bank and a Pakistani lender were found guilty and were fined in a case of a 10-year-old crime ring.
The court stated that Societe Generale, Barclays, and the Paris-based lender’s Chairman Daniel Bouton were not part of a group that funneled EUR 82 million into Israel in the late 1990ies. In the more than 700-page court decision, it was said that internal notes and legal documents do not signify in any way that Daniel Bouton had exact information on the fraudulent origins of the funds that were passing through the accounts.
Two banks, National Bank of Pakistan and Societe Marseillaise de Credit, were found guilty of some charges. The Pakistani bank was fined EUR 200 000, while the French bank was fined EUR 100 000. Both banks failed to properly examine their accounts in order to detect money laundering.