Historic Human Rights Verdict: Jury Awards $20M+ To Sudanese Refugees In Landmark Genocide Litigation
NEW YORK :PRNewswire
In a landmark decision, a Manhattan federal jury has found BNP Paribas liable for its role in enabling the genocidal atrocities committed against Black African civilians in Sudan by the al-Bashir dictatorship from 2002 to 2008, paving the way for more than 20,000 Sudanese refugees living in the United States to seek billions more in recovery. The verdict marks a historic moment in human rights and financial accountability, setting a precedent for holding global banks civilly liable for facilitating regimes accused of crimes against humanity.
The five-week jury trial, tried before the Hon. Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York, centered on BNP Paribas’s admitted violations of U.S. sanctions, which allowed Sudan’s government to access billions of U.S. dollars through its Geneva office during the height of the Sudan conflict. Plaintiffs argued, and the jury agreed, that the bank’s financial services were a “natural and adequate cause” of the harm suffered by survivors of ethnic cleansing and mass violence. The jury awarded $6.4 million to Abulgasim Abdalla, $7.3 million to Entesar Osman Kashef, and $6.75 million to Turjuman Adam.
“This verdict is a victory for justice and accountability,” said Lead Trial Attorney Bobby DiCello, Partner at DiCello Levitt. “The jury recognized that financial institutions cannot turn a blind eye to the consequences of their actions. Our clients lost everything to a campaign of destruction fueled by U.S. dollars, that BNP Paribas facilitated and that should have been stopped. Today, they have been heard.”
“This case demonstrates the power of the law to reach across borders and hold even the largest institutions accountable, consistent with the principles at Nuremberg, for their role in human rights abuses,” said Co-Lead Counsel Michael Hausfeld, Founder and Chair Emeritus of Hausfeld. “The Sudanese survivors have endured unimaginable atrocities, and this verdict begins to deliver some long-overdue measure of justice.”
The lawsuit, Kashef, et al. v. BNP Paribas, et al., was brought on behalf of Sudanese refugees who fled violence and persecution throughout Sudan. The plaintiffs alleged that BNP Paribas’s deliberate facilitation of billions in U.S. dollar transactions for Sudan’s government enabled the regime’s campaign of ethnic cleansing, displacement, and mass killing. The jury’s verdict is among the first of its kind to hold a global bank civilly liable for financially enabling human rights abuses.
“This verdict is first and foremost a testament to the courage and resilience of the survivors, whose voices have finally been recognized in a court of law,” said Co-Lead Counsel Kathryn “Lee” Boyd, Partner at Hecht Partners. “It also sends a powerful message that banks and corporations can and will be held responsible for the real-world consequences of their actions.”
