French bank Société Générale SA is to pay $1.335 billion in criminal and regulatory penalties for bribing Libyan officials and manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The fine is split into a $585 million portion for the Libya bribes and a $275 million portion for violations arising from manipulating LIBOR to criminal authorities in the U.S. and France; and a further $475 million in regulatory penalties and disgorgement to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in connection with the LIBOR scheme.
The Justice Department said SocGen subsidiary SGA Société Générale Acceptance NV will plead guilty in the Eastern District of New York in connection with the resolution of the foreign bribery case.
SocGen has also settled with the Parquet National Financier in Paris relating to the Libya corruption scheme. Under this arrangement, the U.S. will pay the PNF $292.8 million — half the amount payable to the U.S. for Libya.
Acting Assistant Attorney General John Cronan said: "Today's resolution, which marks the first coordinated resolution with France in a foreign bribery case, sends a strong message that transnational corruption and manipulation of our markets will be met with a global and coordinated law enforcement response."
