NEW YORK: A wealthy Turkish gold trader charged in the United States with violating US sanctions against Iran sought support from and invoked the name of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to advance his business, US prosecutors say.
US allegations against the trader, Reza Zarrab, were detailed in a Monday filing in the US District Court in Manhattan ahead of a scheduled Nov. 27 trial.
The Turkish lira fell about 1 percent against the US dollar after Bloomberg News reported the filing.
Erdogan has not been accused of wrongdoing, but the case has complicated the US relationship with Turkey, a crucial ally in the Middle East.
Benjamin Brafman, a lawyer for Zarrab, did not immediately respond on Friday to a request for comment. Turkish government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Prosecutors have accused the Iranian-born Zarrab and co-conspirators of handling hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran’s government and Iranian entities from 2010 to 2015, in a scheme to evade US actions.
Nine people have been criminally charged, but only Zarrab and a banker from Turkey’s Halkbank, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, are in US custody.
In the filing, prosecutors said “the government anticipates that the evidence introduced at trial will show that Turkish government and banking officials were integral to the sanctions evasion scheme.”
The filing detailed recorded phone conversations and documents that according to prosecutors suggest Zarrab was looking out for Erdogan’s interests.
It said one call occurred on April 16, 2013, when Zarrab spoke with another defendant about his efforts to buy a bank to establish a conduit for Iranian transactions.
Prosecutors said Zarrab and Erdogan, then Turkey’s prime minister, had spoken four days earlier at a wedding.
“I explained it that day at the wedding,” Zarrab told the co-defendant, according to prosecutors. “I will go back and will say, Mr. Prime Minister, if you approve, give me a license, I will go though BDDK (the Turkish bank regulator) even if I bought the bank anyway.”
The allegations were made on the same day Atilla’s lawyers said Zarrab has “essentially not participated” in the case and that Atilla might be the only defendant appearing at trial.
This raised speculation that Zarrab might be preparing a guilty plea or to cooperate, or that charges against him may change.
The various allegations were made in motions seeking permission to admit or suppress evidence that might be used at trial.
The case is US v. Zarrab et al, US District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00867.
Source: Brecorder.com
