DOJ Ordered to Hand Over Full $629m BAT North Korea Fine to Terror Victims
09/08/2026
Two people injured in Hezbollah attacks have forced the US Department of Justice to deposit the entire $629 million penalty paid by British American Tobacco in 2023 into the official fund for victims of state-sponsored terrorism.
On 4 August 2026, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that DOJ’s earlier decision to allocate only a fraction of the money was unlawful.
The court held that the full amount recovered from BAT’s criminal sanctions and bank-fraud settlement must go into the United States Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism Fund (USVSST Fund).
Background
In April 2023, BAT and its Singapore subsidiary resolved charges that they ran a secret cigarette-supply scheme into North Korea for years, generating hundreds of millions of dollars that prosecutors said helped fund the regime.
The companies paid approximately $629–$630 million in combined criminal penalties, fines and forfeiture, the largest North Korea sanctions penalty in DOJ history at the time.
DOJ had argued that only a small portion of the money qualified for the terror-victims fund because North Korea was not on the US state-sponsors-of-terrorism list for part of the relevant period. The two Lebanon attack victims challenged that interpretation and won.
The ruling means the full sum must now be paid into the Fund, which compensates US victims (and certain others) who hold judgments against designated state sponsors of terrorism.
Key sources
- https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/doj-ordered-to-pay-terrorism-victims-fund-629-million
- https://www.law360.com/articles/2509456/dc-circ-says-feds-629m-settlement-belongs-in-terror-fund
- https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/united-states-obtains-629-million-settlement-british-american-tobacco-resolve-illegal-sales
- https://www.justice.gov/nsd/case/united-states-v-british-american-tobacco-plc-et-al
- https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/foreign-attack-victims-demand-proceeds-of-tobacco-sanctions-fine
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