STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 5 June 2014

[xchrom]

19. Dimon’s Raise Haunts BNP Paribas as U.S. Weighs $10 Billion Fine

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-05/dimon-s-raise-haunts-bnp-paribas-as-u-s-weighs-10-billion-fine.html

When JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s Jamie Dimon got a 74 percent raise in January, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara fumed. He had forced the bank just weeks before to pay $1.7 billion for enabling Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. And yet Dimon was being rewarded.

Now, five months later, Bharara’s frustration is directed at another bank.

In the next few weeks, BNP Paribas SA (BNP) could face criminal charges and a fine of up to $10 billion for doing business in sanctioned countries such as Iran and Sudan. That penalty would far exceed the fines incurred by six other banks that escaped criminal charges for similar offenses since President Barack Obama took office in 2009 -- and would be the largest-ever criminal penalty in the U.S.

The potential severity in BNP’s case stems in part from Bharara’s determination to punish banks that have repeatedly evaded harsher penalties by warning that a wave of unforeseen consequences could result, the egregiousness of BNP’s conduct and the bank’s apparently slow response to the U.S. investigation during its early stages, according to two people familiar with the matter. The case has strained relations between the U.S. and France, with French President Francois Hollande set to confront Obama today at a Paris dinner over what he says is a threat to his country’s financial system.