WASHINGTON (AP) — A unit of one of France's largest banks, Societe Generale, is pleading guilty in the U.S. and the bank is paying a $585 million fine for bribing Libyan officials to win government investments. The bank also is paying $750 million to settle U.S. charges of manipulating a key global interest rate.

The actions were announced by the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Under an agreement with the Justice Department, Societe Generale will avoid criminal prosecution on charges of manipulating the London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR, and will pay a $275 million fine. The bank is paying a $475 million civil penalty in a separate settlement with the CFTC.

The Justice Department said it was the first coordinated resolution with France in a foreign bribery case.

The action "sends a strong message that transnational corruption and manipulation of our markets will be met with a global and coordinated law enforcement response," Acting Assistant Attorney General John Cronan said in a statement.

The LIBOR rate is used to set lending rates for trillions of dollars in transactions around the world, including mortgages, bonds and consumer loans. A number of major international banks already have paid settlements totaling billions of dollars in the rate-rigging scandal that broke in 2012. Units of JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, Britain's Barclays, Switzerland's UBS and Germany's Deutsche Bank also have signed deferred prosecution agreements.

The bank's subsidiary SGA Societe Generale Acceptance NV will plead guilty Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, to violating U.S. laws against foreign bribery between 2004 and 2009, during the regime of Moammar Gadhafi.

In addition, Societe Generale signed a deferred prosecution agreement on related charges of conspiracy and transmitting false reports.

Societe Generale paid a Libyan broker more than $90 million to funnel bribes to high-level Libyan officials in exchange for investments from Libyan state agencies in Societe Generale, the Justice Department said. It said the bank secured investments totaling some $3.7 billion and reaped $523 million in profits from the scheme.

In a statement, Paris-based Societe Generale said it "has already taken extensive steps in recent years to strengthen its overall compliance and control framework, which is intended to meet the highest industry standards of compliance and ethics."

Among its commitments, the bank said it will ensure that its policies and internal controls are designed to prevent violations of anti-bribery and market manipulation laws.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Société Générale will pay more than $860 million in fines for bribing Libyan officials and manipulating a benchmark lending rate.

Between 2004 and 2009, the French bank paid $90 million in bribes to a Libyan broker, who then paid Libyan officials, the US Justice Department announced Monday. The scheme allowed Société Générale to score 13 investments from Libyan banks and earn $523 million profit.

In addition to a $585 million fine for the foreign bribery case, Société Générale will pay $275 million for manipulating the London InterBank Offered Rate between May 2010 and October 2011. Many loans are pegged to the rate, known as Libor.

The bank deceptively suggested it was able to borrow money at better interest rates than it realistically could, making it appear financially stronger and more creditworthy, according to the Justice Department.

The manipulation scheme, ordered by senior executives at Société Générale, altered interest rate swaps, futures contracts and other financial products across the globe. Separately, employees also worked to manipulate Japanese yen-based Libor submissions, according to the Justice Department.

This is the first coordinated resolution between US and French authorities in a foreign bribery case. The United States is waiving half of the $585 million owed by Paris-based Société Générale. The bank instead will pay the other half to the French government.

"The resolution announced today ... sends a powerful message to financial institutions that engage in corruption and manipulation in the financial markets that they will be held accountable," said Richard Donoghue, the US attorney in Brooklyn, New York, who made the joint announcement with other law enforcement officials.

Société Générale, one of the largest banks in Europe, agreed to the fine.

"We regret these past misconducts, which are contrary to our values and ethical standards that led to these settlements," said Frédéric Oudéa, Société Générale's CEO, in a statement. "Over the past years, we have already taken extensive steps, at our own initiative, to strengthen our global compliance and control framework to meet the highest standards of compliance and ethics."

It is expected to enter a deferred prosecution agreement Tuesday afternoon, while a subsidiary will plead guilty in the foreign bribery case.</s>France’s second-biggest bank, Société Générale, has agreed to pay €500m to settle inquiries in the US and France into its dealings with the regime of slain Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, prosecutors said Monday.

The French financial prosecutor’s office said the bank had agreed to pay €250m each to France and the US to avoid corruption trials on either side of the Atlantic.

Société Générale itself announced earlier that it reached agreements to settle the Libya investigations as well as a separate US investigation into its alleged rigging of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) interest rates.

The bank did not say how much it had paid in total but that it had already provided for the cost and that it would have "no impact on Societe Generale’s results".

In May, it said it had set aside €1bn to settle the disputes.

Libya’s sovereign wealth fund, the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), had accused Société Générale of channelling bribes to associates of Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam as part of a "corrupt scheme" to get the LIA to invest billions in Société Générale and its subsidiaries between 2007 and 2009.

The fund claimed that at least $58m in bribes were routed through a Panama-registered company called Leinada, which was headed by an associate of Seif al-Islam.

Société Générale paid nearly €1bn to the LIA in 2017 to settle the case before it opened in the High Court in London. But it remained under investigation in the US and France.

On Monday, a French court approved the deal struck with French authorities to avoid a trial, with a US court expected to follow suit on Tuesday.

Société Générale said it had also struck a deal with the US Department of Justice over its alleged attempt to manipulate Libor, which governs credit costs around the world.

The bank is the latest in a string of lenders, including Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Goldman Sachs, to pay hefty sums to settle allegations of conspiring to rig the rate.

The announcement marks an end to a scandal that led to the surprise departure of SSociété Générale’s deputy CEO Didier Valet in March.

Valet, who reportedly quit over the way the dispute with US was handled, was one of two senior executives to step down, along with the bank’s head of retail banking.

The departures rattled investors, casting a pall over Société Générale’s results in the first quarter.

Higher-than-expected net profits of €850m were offset by a decline in revenues of 2.8% to €6.3bn.

Société Générale said that its French retail banking revenues were hit by low interest rates but were expected to stabilise in 2018.</s>Two financial institutions will each pay a hefty price to resolve claims related to their roles in a scheme to bribe Gadhafi-era Libyan government officials, the Justice Department announced Monday.

Société Générale S.A. was fined $1.3 billion for bribing members of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s government and for manipulating global interests rates.

Separately, Legg Mason will hand over $64 million for partnering with Société Générale in the scheme.

Société Générale took the largest hit. The Paris-based bank will pay $860 million to U.S. and French authorities to resolve criminal charges and an additional $475 million in penalties to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for trying to rig the LIBOR rate, the Justice Department said.

Both companies were accused of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Between 2004 and 2009, Société Générale paid over $90 million in bribes to a “broker” to secure nearly $3.7 billion in business from the Libyan government, according to court documents. The earned a profit of $523 million off 13 investments and one restructuring of an undisclosed state-run business.

Prosecutors said Société Générale paid commissions through the broker to benefit a Legg Mason subsidiary, Permal, which managed funds invested by Libyan state institutions. Legg Mason, through Permal, managed seven of the 13 investments secured through the bribes, earning a profit of roughly $31.6 million, according to the Justice Department.

Société Générale also admitted that it submitted false LIBOR reports to make it look as if Société Générale was borrowing money at better interest rates that it had actually secured, court documents revealed. A senior executive at Société Générale ordered the false reports to fraudulently inflate the bank’s credit rating.

“For years, Société Générale undermined the integrity of global markets and foreign institutions by issuing false financial data and by fraudulently securing contracts through bribery,” said acting Assistant Attorney General John Cronan. “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.”</s>PARIS/NEW YORK (Reuters) - French bank Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) will pay more than $1 billion to resolve criminal and civil charges in the United States and France for bribing Gaddafi-era Libyan officials and manipulating the Libor interest rate benchmark, U.S. authorities said on Monday.

The Paris-based bank is set to plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, to resolve the foreign bribery case, the Justice Department said in an announcement.

A representative of SocGen in France did not immediately provide a comment on the Justice Department announcement.

The resolution is the first coordinated between U.S. and French authorities in a foreign bribery case, the Justice Department said.

“Today’s resolution ... sends a strong message that transnational corruption and manipulation of our markets will be met with a global and coordinated law enforcement response,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Cronan said in a statement.

The Justice Department penalties include a $585 million fine relating to a multi-year scheme to pay bribes to officials in Libya and $275 million for violations arising from its manipulation of Libor, the Justice Department said.

The bank has also agreed with the U.S. derivatives regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to pay $475 million for rigging Libor.

Earlier on Monday, SocGen said it had agreed to pay 250 million euros ($293 million) to the French treasury as part of the overall settlement. That fine will be deducted from the Justice Department penalty, the regulator said, bringing the bank’s total settlement to just over $1 billion.

The penalties had already been covered by earlier provisions and booked into the bank’s accounts, SocGen said. The bank had previously booked a provision of 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion) regarding those various probes.

Between 2004 and 2009, SocGen paid more than $90 million in bribes through a Libyan broker to secure 14 investments by Libyan state-owned financial institutions, the Justice Department said.

The bank will enter into a deferred prosecution agreement while its European subsidiary, SGA Société Générale Acceptance N.V., will plead guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

SocGen also agreed to continue to cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation and adopt and maintain enhanced compliance procedures, the Justice Department said.

The bank is one of many financial firms that has agreed to settle allegations of manipulating Libor, alongside Citigroup, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and UBS.</s>PARIS/NEW YORK (Reuters) - French bank Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) will pay $1.3 billion to resolve criminal and civil charges in the United States and France for bribing Gaddafi-era Libyan officials and manipulating the Libor interest rate benchmark, U.S. authorities said on Monday.

The Paris-based bank is due to plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, to resolve the foreign bribery case, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Earlier on Monday, SocGen said it had agreed to pay 250 million euros ($293 million) to the French treasury as part of the overall U.S.-France settlement.

The resolution is the first coordinated between U.S. and French authorities in a foreign bribery case, the Justice Department said.

“Today’s resolution ... sends a strong message that transnational corruption and manipulation of our markets will be met with a global and coordinated law enforcement response,” John Cronan, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a statement.

SocGen said in a statement that the settlement was “not expected” to affect its ability to continue serving clients and that it had taken extensive steps to strengthen its risk and compliance controls. The bank said the total penalties were already covered by a previously booked provision of 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion).

The Justice Department penalties include a $585 million fine relating to a multi-year scheme to pay bribes to officials in Libya and $275 million for violations arising from its manipulation of Libor, the Justice Department said.

The London interbank offered rate, known as Libor, is used as a benchmark against which rates on hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of contracts and loans are set across the world.

Societe Generale bank also agreed with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates derivatives, to pay $475 million for rigging Libor.

SocGen’s agreement to pay 250 million euros ($293 million) to the French treasury brings the bank’s total settlement to $1.3 billion.

“We regret these past misconducts, which are contrary to our values and ethical standards that led to these settlements,” Frédéric Oudéa, chief executive of Societe Generale, said in the bank’s statement, calling the settlement “an important step for the Bank.”

Between 2004 and 2009, SocGen paid more than $90 million in bribes through a Libyan broker to secure 14 investments by Libyan state-owned financial institutions, the Justice Department said.

The bank will enter into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement while its European subsidiary, SGA Société Générale Acceptance N.V., will plead guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

SocGen also agreed to continue to cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation and adopt and maintain enhanced compliance procedures, the Justice Department said.

On Monday, the Justice Department said that Maryland-based investment management firm Legg Mason Inc entered into a non-prosecution agreement to pay $64.2 million to resolve a probe of the firm’s Permal Group Ltd subsidiary. Permal had partnered with SocGen to help solicit business from the state-owned financial institutions in Libya, and Legg Mason had ultimately benefited from some of the bribes paid by SocGen, the Justice Department said.

In a letter to stakeholders on Monday, Legg Mason’s chairman and chief executive, Joseph Sullivan, said the firm was in discussions with the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission to settle civil charges on the same matter.

“The misconduct by former employees of the legacy Permal business that the government found was totally unacceptable. It violated our high standards...,” he wrote.

He said that over the last decade Legg Mason “has substantially enhanced its anti-corruption oversight, compliance policies, procedures and other related mechanisms.”</s>PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Legg Mason Inc. (LM) agreed to pay $64.2 million to resolve the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with Legg Mason's participation, through a subsidiary, in a Libyan bribery scheme.



According to Legg Mason's admissions, between 2004 and 2010, a Legg Mason subsidiary, Permal Group Ltd., partnered with Société Générale S.A., a multinational bank headquartered in Paris, France, to solicit business from state-owned financial institutions in Libya.



During this time, Société Générale paid bribes through a Libyan 'broker' in connection with 14 investments made by Libyan state-owned financial institutions. For each transaction, Société Générale paid the Libyan broker a commission of between one and a half and three percent of the nominal amount of the investments made by the Libyan state institutions.



In connection with seven of the transactions, Société Générale paid commissions to the Libyan broker to benefit Legg Mason, through its subsidiary Permal, which managed funds invested by the Libyan state institutions. In total, Société Générale paid the Libyan Intermediary over $90 million, portions of which the Libyan broker paid to high-level Libyan officials in order to secure the investments from various Libyan state institutions for Société Générale. 



As a result of the corrupt scheme, Société Générale obtained 13 investments and one restructuring from the Libyan state institutions worth a total of approximately $3.66 billion, and earned profits of approximately $523 million. Legg Mason, through Permal, managed seven of these investments and earned profits of approximately $31.6 million.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX</s>Societe Generale S.A. will pay over US$860 million to resolve criminal charges in the U.S. and France for bribing Gaddafi-era Libyan officials and manipulating the Libor rate, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday.

REUTERS: Societe Generale S.A. will pay over US$860 million to resolve criminal charges in the U.S. and France for bribing Gaddafi-era Libyan officials and manipulating the Libor rate, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday.

The Paris-based bank is set to plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, to resolve the foreign bribery case, the Justice Department said.

The resolution is the first coordinated with French authorities in a foreign bribery case, the statement said.</s>PARIS: France's second-biggest bank Societe Generale will pay US authorities US$1.34 billion to settle allegations that it bribed officials in Libya and also manipulated the Libor interest rate benchmark, the US Justice Department announced on Monday (Jun 4).

French prosecutors had said earlier that the bank had agreed to pay €500 million (US$583 million) to end inquiries in the US and France into its dealings with the regime of slain Libyan dictator Muammar Ghadaffi.

The French financial prosecutor's office said the bank had agreed to pay €250 million each to France and the US to avoid corruption trials on either side of the Atlantic.

Societe Generale itself announced earlier that it reached agreements to settle the Libya investigations as well as a separate US investigation into its alleged rigging of Libor interest rates.

The bank did not say how much it had paid in total but said it had already provided for the cost and that it would have "no impact on Societe Generale's results".

Last month, it said it had set aside one billion euros to settle the disputes.

Libya's sovereign wealth fund, the Libyan Investment Authority, had accused Societe Generale of channelling bribes to associates of Ghaddaffi's son Seif al-Islam as part of a "corrupt scheme" to get the LIA to invest billions in Societe Generale and its subsidiaries between 2007 and 2009.

The fund claimed that at least US$58 million in bribes was routed through a Panama-registered company called Leinada, which was headed by an associate of Seif al-Islam.

Societe Generale paid nearly a billion euros to the LIA last year to settle the case before it opened in the High Court in London.

But it remained under investigation in the US and France.

A French court on Monday approved the deal struck with French authorities to avoid a trial, with a US court expected to follow suit on Tuesday.

Societe Generale said it had also struck a deal with the US Department of Justice over its alleged attempt to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), which governs credit costs around the world.

"For years, Societe Generale undermined the integrity of global markets and foreign institutions by issuing false financial data and by fraudulently securing contracts through bribery," Acting US Assistant Attorney General John Cronan said on Monday.

The bank is the latest in a string of lenders, including Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Goldman Sachs, to pay hefty sums to settle allegations of conspiring to rig the rate.

The announcement marks an end to a scandal which led to the surprise departure of Societe Generale's deputy CEO Didier Valet in March.

Valet, who reportedly quit over the way the dispute with the US was handled, was one of two senior executives to step down, along with the bank's head of retail banking.

The departures rattled investors, casting a pall over Societe Generale's results in the first quarter.

Higher-than-expected net profits of €850 million were offset by a decline in revenues of 2.8 per cent to €6.3 billion.

Societe Generale said that its French retail banking revenues were hit by low interest rates but were expected to stabilise in 2018.</s>Société Générale SA France said Monday it reached agreements in principle with U.S. and French authorities regarding its alleged manipulation of Libor rates and transactions involving Libyan counterparts.

The French bank will pay 250 million euros ($290 million) to French authorities in relation to the transactions with Libyan counterparts and the same amount to the U.S. Treasury, pending validation by a federal judge of the agreement to suspend legal proceedings, French financial prosecutors said.
Société Générale agrees to pay a total fine of $1.3 billion in cases of bribing Libyan government officials and manipulation of the Libor interbank rate.