Holding firm against intense pressure by the French government, the U.S. and New York exacted a record $8.9 billion from banking giant BNP Paribas for incorrigibly helping the outlaw regimes of Iran and Sudan evade economic sanctions.
France ought to be ashamed for having tried to pull strings to protect a financial institution that persisted in aiding nuclear-mad mullahs even as probers pursued the bank’s clear wrongdoing.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance and New York Superintendent of Financial Services Ben Lawsky properly insisted on a guilty plea and restrictions on BNP Paribas’ activity in the U.S. to go along with the huge financial penalty.
Great praise also goes to Stephen Flatow, a New Jersey father whose daughter Alissa was murdered in a 1995 suicide attack while participating in a Jewish study program in Israel.
Determined to win some measure of justice from Iran for backing the perpetrators in the Islamic Jihad terror group, Flatow sued here, and was awarded $250 million in damages.
Iran ignored the judgment, so Flatow tried to collect from the Alavi Foundation, a charity that served as a front. Eventually, the group surrendered its ownership in a 36-story midtown tower, with its sale going to paying off Iran’s judgment.
That, in turn, helped lead to the banking networks Iran used to operate here, and that trail — pursued by the federal, state and local officials — eventually led to BNP, which had made a very lucrative business out of breaking American law.
Flatow called the outcome of his efforts a tribute to his slain daughter, who would have been 40 now had she lived. For her and for everyone, he did a monumental service.
Comment
