Credit Agricole has been accused by US authorities of handling billions of dollars in transfers for entities from Iran, Sudan, and Cuba under US sanctions between 2003 and 2008, AFP reported on Wednesday.
Rival French bank BNP Paribas was ordered to pay a record $8.9 billion fine earlier this year for similar violations in the long-running US investigation of European banks for illicit dollar transactions with countries under US sanctions.
At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.
On October 15, 2012, foreign ministers of the European Union reached an agreement on another round of sanctions against Iran.
But the sanctions era seems to be waning after Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) finalized a nuclear deal dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on July 14 in the Austrian city of Vienna.
On Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini in a joint statement voiced their commitment to the implementation of the JCPOA.
The comprehensive nuclear deal would terminate all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran after coming into force.