This seems a bit heavy handed to me... I don't argue that (according to the article), the bank working actively to stymie the investigation, indeed allowing more transgressions to occur after the investigation started, raises the bar somewhat.

Yet even so, this represents roughly one entire year of profits for the bank. This would be crippling... I'm curious, do the European economic types think this is likely? Can the BNP Paribas survive such a penalty? Should anybody be penalized so dramatically for ignoring the sanctions regimes?