Banks convicted in Franco-Israeli laundering scamA Paris court on Thursday cleared the banks Societe Generale and Barclays of complicity in money-laundering between France and Israel, but convicted a top Pakistani bank and a British-owned lender. The court also sentenced a former French prosecutor to 20 months for corruption, and gave two executives from the National Bank of Pakistan The National Bank of Pakistan has its headquarters in Karachi, Pakistan. It has over 1,200 branches throughout Pakistan. The bank provides both commercial and public sector banking services. It has assets worth $9 billion in 2004. two-year suspended jail terms following a mammoth trial. Judges heard how the four banks handled money from merchants in Paris's Sentier garment district -- the proceeds of tax evasion The process whereby a person, through commission of Fraud, unlawfully pays less tax than the law mandates. Tax evasion is a criminal offense under federal and state statutes. A person who is convicted is subject to a prison sentence, a fine, or both. , embezzlement embezzlement, wrongful use, for one's own selfish ends, of the property of another when that property has been legally entrusted to one. Such an act was not larceny at common law because larceny was committed only when property was acquired by a "felonious taking," i. or stolen cheques laundered through banks or money exchange offices in Israel. The banks had all denied any wrongdoing wrong·do·er n. One who does wrong, especially morally or ethically. wrong  do in the case, dubbed "Sentier 2."
A previous "Sentier" trial saw dozens of clothing merchants from the district convicted of defrauding banks, and investigators looked at whether the firms had made proper checks before handling the merchants' payments. One hundred and fifty-two people were on trial alongside Societe Generale, the French units of Britain's Barclays and of the National Bank of Pakistan, and Societe Marseillaise de Credit, owned by Britain's HSBC HSBC Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation HSBC Humane Society of Broward County (Florida) HSBC Humane Society of Bay County (Bay County, Michigan) . Daniel Bouton, the chairman of Societe Generale -- which was hit by a massive rogue trading scandal at the start of this year -- was acquitted along with his bank and three other senior managers at the lender. They were accused of handling the equivalent of 32 million euros (42 million dollars) in ill-gotten funds. Investigators told the court that Societe Generale knew of the fradulent origin of this money but the judge accepted defence arguments that there was no "intentional element" on the part of the bank. Bouton's lawyer welcomed what he said was a "coherent" decision. Bouton bouton /bou·ton/ (boo-tahn´) [Fr.] a buttonlike swelling on an axon where it has a synapse with another neuron. synaptic bouton b. terminal. had been charged with aggravated money laundering The process of taking the proceeds of criminal activity and making them appear legal. Laundering allows criminals to transform illegally obtained gain into seemingly legitimate funds. and faced 10 years in jail. Barclays-France and four of its former or current executives were also cleared of wrongdoing. The British bank had been accused of knowingly handling the equivalent of nine million euros in dirty money but the court accepted arguments that regulations on handling cheques were not "particularly clear" at the time. The court fined the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP NBP Narodowy Bank Polski (Polish: National Bank of Poland) NBP Name Binding Protocol NBP National Braille Press NBP National Bank of Pakistan NBP National Biosolids Partnership NBP Nathaniel B. ) 200,000 euros and gave two-year suspended jail sentences to two of its bosses for failing to spot 1.8 million euros in illegal transfers. The pair were also also fined 20,000 euros each. Two other executives from the NBP, one of the largest commercial banks in Pakistan The following is the list of banks in Pakistan. Central bank
Societe Marseillaise de Credit was also convicted of failing to spot 1.8 million euros in illegal transfers and fined 100,000 euros. One of its executives was given an eight-month suspended sentence. A former French prosecutor was convicted of for corruption and influence peddling and given a three-year jail sentence with 16 months of it suspended. He was fined 30,000 euros. The court heard he had received envelopes stuffed with cash for giving "legal protection" to people involved in the laundering. 
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