Prosecutors Accuse Turkey's Halkbank of Scheme to Evade Iran Sanctions

October 15, 2019

Author: 

Brendan Pierson

Publication: 

Reuters

Related Country: 

  • Turkey

U.S. prosecutors charged Turkey's state-owned Halkbank in a multibillion-dollar scheme to evade sanctions on Iran. The scheme used front companies in gold, food, and medicine transactions, and allegedly involved bribes to Turkish officials. The Halkbank indictment is the latest step in an investigation that first became public with the 2016 arrest of Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian businessman who subsequently pleaded guilty. In 2017, Halkbank deputy manager Mehmet Hakan Atilla was convicted and sentenced to 32 months in prison.