A
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...in a multi-billion-dollar gold-for-oil scheme allegedly designed to subvert US sanctions on Iran.
Reza Zarrab, 34, who was tossed in the calaboose
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
in Miami in 2016 before agreeing to cooperate with US prosecutors, implied that Erdogan knew how he and a
The case has angered Erdogan. His government has called the trial a "plot" and he has demanded the release of Zarrab and defendant, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the deputy chief executive of
"We did the right thing. We did not violate the embargo," Erdogan told politicians in
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
on Thursday, according to state broadcaster TRT Haber.
But in New York, Zarrab said he was told that in 2012, Erdogan, prime minister at the time, and then treasury minister Ali Babacan had given "instructions" for two other
Turkey’s then economy minister, Zaref Caglayan, "told me that Mr. Prime Minister had given approval for Ziraat and Vakif to also do this work," he said through a
Zarrab also used his second day of testimony to declare that he extended the multi-billion-dollar scheme to India and tried to do so in China.
"But then all the banks we were working with, they immediately stopped it when they realized it had something to do with Iran," Zarrab testified.
On Wednesday, he said he paid tens of millions of dollars worth of bribes to Caglayan between 2012 and 2013 to facilitate illegal gold transactions with Iran.
Due to face trial himself, he instead pleaded guilty to seven counts and became prosecutors’ star witness. While others have been indicted, they remain on the lam and Atilla is alone in the dock.
’Under pressure’
While Erdogan is not charged with any crime, analysts had expected that corruption revelations could embarrass him and his inner circle.
There are fears in Turkey that a guilty verdict could lead to possible sanctions on one or more
Zarrab was a key figure in a 2013
Caglayan, who is also named in the US indictment, and the other three ministers resigned from government at the time.
Turkey has denounced both the New York trial and the 2013 scandal as conspiracies by US-based preacher Fethullah Gülen
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world..., the alleged criminal mastermind of a 2016 failed coup targeting Erdogan. Gulen denies the allegations.
Atilla is charged with violating sanctions against Iran, as well as of bribery and money laundering.
Halkbank has denied any suggestion that it violated US sanctions, saying it had "not been a party" to any "illegal" transaction.
Turkey seizes assets of Reza Zarrab, gold trader at center of US trial
[DW]
The order applies to Zarrab's assets and those of his family, including his
According to the Anadolu report, Zarrab is suspected of espionage against
The
It has also accused US prosecutors and judges of being tied to the Gulen movement.
US District Judge Richard M. Berman said audio recordings of the conversations between Erdogan and Babacan would be heard in court as evidence next week.