NEW YORK » BNP Paribas, France’s largest bank and the parent of First Hawaiian Bank, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal charge of violating U.S. economic sanctions by processing transactions for clients in blacklisted countries, a development that a Manhattan judge said should show that no financial institution is "immune from the rule of law."

The plea to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Powers Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act came a week after lawyers for the bank agreed to forfeit $8.8 billion as it pleaded guilty to similar charges in state court in New York City. The bank admitted processing billions of dollars in illegal transactions on behalf of clients in Sudan, Cuba and Iran.