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Home Front: WoT
Turkish bank appeals to US Supreme Court over claims it violated Iran sanctions
2023-01-19
[IsraelTimes] Department of Justice says it is one of the most serious sanctions-breaking cases it has seen, but Halkbank claims immunity under the US Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act

The United States Supreme Court
...the political football known as The Highest Court in the Land, home of penumbrae and emanations...
 will hear arguments Tuesday in an appeal by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
’s Halkbank against US charges that it violated sanctions on Iran.

The bank wants the high court to rule on its claim that as a state-owned bank, it has immunity under the US Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

Halkbank was hit with criminal charges in 2019 that it took part in a year-long scheme to launder billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil and natural gas proceeds, violating US sanctions on Iran.

The funds were used to buy gold and the transactions were disguised as food and medicine purchases in order to fall under a humanitarian exemption to the sanctions, according to court documents.

Halkbank allegedly used front companies to funnel $20 billion to Iran, including $1 billion through the US financial system, according to the US case.

The Department of Justice said it had charged the bank with six counts of fraud, money laundering, and sanctions offenses, calling it one of the most serious sanctions-breaking cases it has seen.

Halkbank says that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which protects foreign leaders and governments from lawsuits in the United States, extends to state-owned businesses.

US courts have disagreed, and the issue is now to be decided by the Supreme Court.

But the case is underpinned by the politics of US relations with Turkey, a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
 ally and an important power in Middle East politics.

Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...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 Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than there are in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really most important...
 has repeatedly rejected the charges against the bank, saying Turkey did not violate the US embargo on Iran
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...
and that political rivals were behind the case.

Multiple individuals have already been found guilty in the case, including Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a deputy director general of the bank, who was convicted in 2018.

Atilla was placed in durance vile
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
 for a year and then released in 2019, and was greeted as a hero upon his return to Turkey.
Related:
Halkbank: 2021-10-23 Turkey's Halkbank can be prosecuted over Iran sanction violations, US appeals court
Halkbank: 2021-03-10 Chief Executive of Istanbul Exchange Steps Down
Halkbank: 2020-04-01 Turkey’s Halkbank pleaded ‘not guilty’ in fraud, money laundering and sanctions evasion case in US.
Link


The Grand Turk
Turkey's Halkbank can be prosecuted over Iran sanction violations, US appeals court
2021-10-23
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A US appeals court on Friday rejected Halkbank's bid to dismiss an indictment accusing the state-owned Ottoman Turkish lender of helping Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
evade American sanctions.

The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals said even if the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act shielded the bank, the charge against Halkbank falls under the commercial activity exception.

Prosecutors accused Halkbank of converting oil revenue into gold and then cash to benefit Iranian interests and documenting fake food shipments to justify transfers of oil proceeds.

They also said Halkbank helped Iran secretly transfer $20 billion of restricted funds, with at least $1 billion laundered through the US financial system.

Halkbank has pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
 to bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy charges over its alleged use of money servicers and front companies in Iran, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
 and the United Arab Emirates to evade sanctions.

The bank had argued that it is immune from prosecution under the federal Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act because it was "synonymous" with Turkey, which has immunity under that law.

Halkbank had been appealing an Oct. 1 ruling by US District Judge Richard Berman allowing it to be prosecuted.

Berman has overseen several related cases, including the conviction of former Halkbank executive Mehmet Hakan Atilla and a guilty plea by Ottoman Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab.

Halkbank's case has complicated US-Ottoman Turkish relations, with Ottoman Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan backing Halkbank's innocence in a 2018 memo to then-US President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
Related:
Halkbank: 2021-03-10 Chief Executive of Istanbul Exchange Steps Down
Halkbank: 2020-04-01 Turkey’s Halkbank pleaded ‘not guilty’ in fraud, money laundering and sanctions evasion case in US.
Halkbank: 2019-10-17 US charges Turkish bank with evading sanctions against Iran
Link


The Grand Turk
Chief Executive of Istanbul Exchange Steps Down
2021-03-10
[ENGLISH.AAWSAT] A top Ottoman Turkish banker convicted in the US of busting sanctions on Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
resigned on Monday as the chief executive of the Istanbul stock exchange, state media reported.

Mehmet Hakan Atilla, who served as deputy director general of Ottoman Turkish lender Halkbank, was convicted in 2018 of plotting to help Iran evade US sanctions in a multi-billion dollar gold-for-oil scheme, AFP reported.

Atilla was released from jail in the US in 2019 after spending two years behind bars, and was named head of the stock exchange in October 2019.

Atilla resigned "of his own accord," the Borsa Istanbul exchange said in a statement, quoted by state news agency Anadolu.

A US federal court is expected to put Halkbank on trial later this year after charging it with six counts of fraud, money laundering and sanctions offences in 2019.

Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...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 Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
 has dismissed the claims, insisting the case against Atilla was "politically motivated."

Atilla served as deputy CEO of Ottoman Turkish lender Halkbank and was responsible for international banking between 2011 and 2018.

Observers have suggested that Atilla’s resignation would be a preemptive step for a potential ruling against Halkbank, one of the three state-owned banks. A large fine and other punitive actions against Halkbank could rock The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
’s banking system.

US prosecutors allege Iran funneled some $20 billion in oil revenue through Halkbank to sidestep sanctions for its nuclear program in 2012 and 2013.

The case dates back to 2016, when Reza Zarrab, a businessperson with dual citizenship of Iran and Turkey, was taken into custody at Miami Airport in March.

He was charged with violating sanctions against Iran, money laundering, "conspiracy against the US," and defrauding US banks.

During Zarrab’s trial, Turkey sent a diplomatic note to the US embassy, requesting information about the businessperson, as it was not able to hear from Zarrab and was concerned about his life safety.

The court combined the cases of Atilla and Zarrab in April 2017.

Zarrab became a confessor in October 2017 and admitted that he used Halkbank to trade gold for natural gas. Following his confession, Attila remained the sole defendant in the trial.

The CEO of Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST) resigned on Monday, March 8, 2021 ahead of a US court appeal to a fraud case (Rooters)

Link


The Grand Turk
Turkey seeks extradition of FETO fugitive from US
2018-01-05
[AA.TR] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund....
 has issued an extradition request to the U.S. for an alleged FETO-linked runaway Huseyin Korkmaz,
...who fears he would be tortured if he were returned to Turkey, where he led an investigation involving Turkish officials...
a judicial source said on Thursday.

Istanbul’s Prosecutor Office issued an arrest warrant for Korkmaz, demanding his extradition from the U.S., said the source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The extradition request has been submitted to the Justice Ministry, which will send it to the U.S. judicial authorities, it added.

Korkmaz is a central figure of an investigation into Dec. 17-25, 2013 cases pertaining to the "FETO judicial coup attempt of Dec. 17-25." The attempt led to the detention of prominent figures.

The extradition request came after Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul called for bringing back Korkmaz, a former Ottoman Turkish police supervisor who fled to the U.S. after being released in February 2016 to testify before the U.S. court in a case involving former Ottoman Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla.
That high-pitched whine you hear in the background is just the corpse of Kemal Ataturk spinning in his grave.
Korkmaz faces several charges including "being member of an armed terror group" and "attempting to overthrow the government of the Republic of Turkey."

On Wednesday, a jury in New York found Atilla guilty on five counts related to conspiracy and bank fraud but acquitted him of a money laundering charge.

The verdict by a panel of six men and six women against Atilla, the 47-year-old former deputy chief executive officer of Turkey’s Halkbank, came after more than three weeks of testimonies and four days of deliberation.

The counts on which the banker was declared guilty included violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran, crimes to deceive the U.S. and defrauding U.S. banks.
Link


Home Front: WoT
Turkish banker convicted in Iran sanctions-busting scheme
2018-01-04
[IsraelTimes] Mehmet Hakan Atilla found guilty of bank fraud, conspiracy, in case which implicated Erdogan and strained US ties with Ankara

A Ottoman Turkish banker was convicted in New York on Wednesday in connection with a massive scheme to help Iran evade US sanctions, in a case that strained ties between Ankara and Washington.

A jury found Mehmet Hakan Atilla, deputy chief executive of Ottoman Turkish lender Halkbank, guilty of five counts of bank fraud and conspiracy.

The federal trial hinged on the testimony of well-connected Ottoman Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab,
...who first appeared on our radar in late 2013 as an incidental item while then-Prime Minister Erdogan raged against the detention of dozens of his top people in a graft probe he blamed on the perfidy of his BFF Fethullah Gulen...
who became a government witness after admitting his involvement in the multi-billion-dollar gold-for-oil scheme to subvert US economic sanctions against Iran.

His testimony implicated former Ottoman Turkish ministers and even President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... 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 the scheme, and identified 47-year-old Atilla as a key organizer.

Zarrab, a prominent gold trader, agreed to testify after striking a deal to plead guilty to violating US sanctions.

Before the trial, Erdogan reportedly pressed US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
 to quell the investigation and strongly criticized Washington, calling the case a "plot" aimed at hurting The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund....
Ouch. The auto-translator is clearly in a mood.
Acting US Attorney Joon Kim said the case was a warning to anyone who would violate US sanctions.

"Foreign banks and bankers have a choice: You can choose willfully to help Iran and other sanctioned nations evade US law, or you can choose to be part of the international banking community transacting in US dollars. But you can’t do both," Kim said in a statement.

"If you lie repeatedly to US Treasury officials and fabricate documents ‐ all as part of a secret scheme to smuggle billions of dollars in Iranian oil money past the US sanctions net ‐ as Atilla did, then you should be prepared for the consequences."

Senior Turkish official slams US conviction of banker

[Ynet] A senior Ottoman Turkish government official said on Wednesday that the conviction of Ottoman Turkish banker Hakan Atilla in the United States violated international law.

A US jury on Wednesday found Atilla, an executive at The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's majority state-owned Halkbank, guilty of helping Iran evade US sanctions.

The official told Rooters the outcome of the trial would not hurt the Ottoman Turkish economy, banking system or Halkbank.
Link


Home Front: WoT
Turkish banker accused of helping Iran launder money seeks mistrial
2017-12-15
[Ynet] Lawyers for a Ottoman Turkish banker on trial in New York on charges that he helped Iran evade US sanctions asked a judge on Wednesday to declare a mistrial, saying testimony by a former Ottoman Turkish police investigator should not have been allowed in court.

The lawyers for Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive at The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's majority state-owned Halkbank, said the jury had been "tainted" after hearing Huseyin Korkmaz testify in Manhattan federal court this week that he feared he would be tortured if he returned to Turkey, where he led an investigation involving Ottoman Turkish officials, Atilla and others.

"Associating the defendant with the specter of mindless and cruel political violence at the hands of his government-based alleged co-conspirators is almost guaranteed to inflame the jury against the defendant," the lawyers said.
Link


The Grand Turk
A Plot of Gold for Erdogan
2017-12-03
More on this story from yesterday.
[RUDAW.NET] This week Iranian-Ottoman Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab went on trial in the United States for a scheme to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions between 2010 and 2015. Along with Ottoman Turkish Halk Bank president Mehmet Hakan Atilla, Mr. Zarrab allegedly used Iranian funds and oil to buy gold in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, then sold the gold in Dubai and forwarded the returns back to Tehran. As part of the operation, Mr. Zarrab bribed top Ottoman Turkish officials, including Turkey’s finance minister and other members of the government’s cabinet.

In a plea bargain to reduce his sentence, Mr. Zarrab agreed to cooperate with American prosecutors, and his resulting testimony is producing interesting revelations. On Thursday, November 30, Mr. Zarrab testified that Ottoman Turkish President Erdogan (who was Prime Minister at the time) personally ordered the scheme to help Iran evade American sanctions and enrich the coffers of Turkey and its officials in the process.

According to the BBC, Mr. Zarrab "said that he was told in 2012 by the then economy minister that Mr Erdogan...had instructed Ottoman Turkish banks to participate in the multi-million dollar scheme" and that "...he paid Zafer Caglayan, then Turkey's economy minister, bribes amounting to more than 50m euros ($59m; £44m) to facilitate deals with Iran."

President Erdogan and other Ottoman Turkish government officials, including former finance minister Caglayan and former Halk Bank president Atilla (who is pleading "not guilty" in the trial) denied the allegations.
No, no! Certainly not!
 The Ottoman Turkish government and its controlled media even went further than denying the allegations, accusing the American judge in the case of having links with 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 reclusive Pennsylvania-based Ottoman Turkish holy man that the Erdogan government insists was behind the July 2016 coup attempt).

Government controlled newspapers in Turkey either sidestepped the substance of the trial in New York, choosing instead to focus on things such as Mr. Zarrab’s fashion preferences for the court room ("casual chic" on Thursday, apparently), or they carried reports such as this one from Daily Sabah:

Officials in Turkey have argued that the case has been turned into a political move against Ankara. Turkey's claims were proved after the judge overseeing the Zarrab case was linked to the Gulenist Terror Group (FETÖ), led by runaway preacher Fetullah Gulen, who has lived in a self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999. The Ottoman Turkish government has accused the group of exploiting the case by illegally obtaining and fabricating evidence, including wiretap records done by now-sacked FETÖ-linked coppers. Ankara says the so-called "evidence" was illegal for a court to use under U.S. law, which requires that any piece of evidence must be obtained through legal means.

Perhaps in another attempt to distract the Ottoman Turkish public from serious allegations of bribery amongst Turkey’s top government officials, prosecutors in Ankara this week also put out an arrest warrant for Graham Fuller, a former vice chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council, for "attempting to overthrow the government of the Republic of Turkey" and "obtaining state information that must be kept secret for political and military espionage purposes," among other charges. Mr. Fuller now joins fellow American academic Henry Barkey, who had an arrest warrant put out for him on similar charges a few months ago.
Link


Home Front: WoT
Turkish gold trader fingers Erdogan in Iran sanctions-busting scheme
2017-12-02
[IsraelTimes] In US trial, Reza Zarrab testifies The Sick Man of Europe Turkey's leader instructed banks to take part in gold-for-oil ploy; government calls case a 'plot'

A Ottoman Turkish-Iranian gold trader testifying at trial in New York on Thursday implicated Turkey’s President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... 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 Ottoman Turkish banker, now on trial, circumvented US sanctions on Iran and laundered money from Iranian petroleum sales.

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 Ottoman Turkish lender Halkbank.

"We did the right thing. We did not violate the embargo," Erdogan told politicians in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...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 Ottoman Turkish public banks, Vakif and Ziraat, to take part in the scheme.

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 Ottoman Turkish-language interpreter.

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. Ottoman Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said Zarrab was making defamatory claims because he was "under pressure."

There are fears in Turkey that a guilty verdict could lead to possible sanctions on one or more Ottoman Turkish banks, spelling bad news for the country’s fragile economy.

Zarrab was a key figure in a 2013 Ottoman Turkish corruption scandal in which he allegedly bribed four ministers to facilitate sanctions-busting trade and other deals. He allegedly carried suitcases stuffed with cash to Dubai, where they were exchanged for foreign currencies used for international payments to circumvent the US sanctions. He was held for 70 days until prosecutors dropped all the charges.

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] Ottoman Turkish prosecutors on Friday ordered the seizure of assets belonging to Reza Zarrab, a Ottoman Turkish-Iranian billionaire who turned into a witness for the US government in a New York trial centered on an alleged oil-for-gold Iran sanctions busting scheme.

The order applies to Zarrab's assets and those of his family, including his Ottoman Turkish pop star wife Ebru Gundes, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

According to the Anadolu report, Zarrab is suspected of espionage against The Sick Man of Europe Turkey.

The Ottoman Turkish government has previously accused the Gulen movement, which it blames for last year's failed coup attempt, of illegal wiretapping or creating fake audio recordings.

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.
Link


The Grand Turk
Turkey says Trump told Erdogan won't give Syria Kurds more arms
2017-11-25
Possibly this is true. Possibly Turkey is trying to force President Trump’s hand, thinking that their heritage of Byzantine plotting gives them an innate advantage in negotiations. Possibly Turkey is wrong.
[AlAhram] President Donald Trump has informed Ankara that the US will no longer supply weapons to the Syrian Kurdish militia fighting Islamic State (IS) militants, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday.

Trump delivered the message during what the Turkish presidency called a "productive" phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday

"Mr Trump said he gave a clear order and that after this, weapons would not be supplied to the YPG, essentially he said this nonsense should have been ended earlier," Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a press conference in Ankara.

The YPG is the Peoples' Protection Units Kurdish militia in Syria, which the US has seen as the most effective fighting force on the ground against IS.

"Naturally, we welcomed these statements," said Cavusoglu, adding: "Of course we want to see this put into practice."

There was no immediate comment from the US side regarding the content of the telephone call between the two leaders.

Relations between the US and Turkey have been strained since the administration of former President Barack Obama over its support for the YPG and the failure to extradite Pennsylvania-based Fethullah Gulen blamed for ordering last year's coup bid.

Bilateral ties are at further risk of fraying over a scheduled trial in New York of Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab and Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the deputy chief executive of Turkish lender Halkbank, both accused of defying US sanctions on Iran.

The trial is expected to start early next month but there are fears over possible fines against one or more Turkish banks in the event of a guilty verdict.
Link



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