BNP Paribas agreed to pay nearly $9 billion Monday and plead guilty to crimes for violating US sanctions, an unprecedented settlement that includes a year-long ban on the French bank's ability to conduct certain US dollar transactions.

US officials, in a Washington news conference and a Manhattan courtroom, laid out in stark terms a sophisticated and long-running scheme by BNP Paribas to disguise billions of dollars in financial transactions in violation of American sanctions against Sudan, Iran and Cuba-despite warnings by some within the firm about the legality, and morality, of the transactions.