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Barclays Agrees to Pay $298 Million for Violating Sanctions

By Joe Palazzolo

Barclays headquarters at One Churchill Place

Barclays Bank Plc has agreed to pay $298 million to settle charges that the firm engaged in illegal transactions with countries facing trade and economic sanctions by the U.S.

In documents filed Monday in federal court in Washington, the Justice Department said that from 1995 to 2006 Barclays facilitated illegal transactions for parties and countries under sanction by the Treasury Department’s Offce of Foreign Assets Control — including Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Burma.

The Justice Department charged the bank with violating the Trading with the Enemy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.  Under a deferred prosecution agreement with the federal government, the bank would admit fault but would avoid a criminal conviction if it complies with a list of requirements.

A federal judge must approve the agreement. The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan had scheduled a hearing Monday afternoon but postponed it because the Barclays representative who signed the legal agreement was not present in court.

The $298 million matches the amount that the bank acknowledged was involved in the illegal transactions. Barlcays will forfeit $149 million to the federal government and another $149 million in a separate agreement with the New York County District Attorney’s Office.

Barclays is represented by Bruce Hickey of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Frederick Reynolds and Kevin Gerrity of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division are the lead prosecutors in the case.

The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Full post as published by Main Justice on August 16, 2010 (boomark / email).