BNP Paribas (>> BNP PARIBAS), for the second time in nine days, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions, as part of a nearly $9 billion settlement in which the French bank admitted to breaking embargoes against Sudan, Cuba and Iran.

BNP Paribas (>> BNP PARIBAS), for the second time in nine days, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions, as part of a nearly $9 billion settlement in which the French bank admitted to breaking embargoes against Sudan, Cuba and Iran.

Prosecutors had accused the bank of processing billions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on behalf of the Sudanese and others barred because of human rights abuses, support for terrorists and other national security concerns.

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Inquirer.com (sub. req.):

Montgomery County could receive nearly $16 million – or more – from a federal ruling against the banking industry’s mortgage registry, and attorneys are now reaching out to other counties nationwide to get in on the action.

U.S. District Judge J. Curtis Joyner in Philadelphia ruled June 30 that Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems and its parent company, Merscorp Inc., collectively known as MERS, violated Pennsylvania law by using its members-only database to circumvent county recorder of deeds offices.

As a result, Joyner ruled, counties lost millions of dollars in fees, the accuracy of public records was compromised, and home loans were sold time and again without the knowledge of homeowners or county recorders.

“Over the past several years, a number of residents who were facing foreclosures didn’t know who owned their mortgage or to whom they should be making their mortgage payments,” Joyner wrote.

If the…