US charges represent ‘unprecedented overreach,’ says Turkey’s Halkbank
Shares drop despite ban on short selling
ISTANBUL: Turkey’s Halkbank said yesterday that US charges against it are part of sanctions Washington slapped on Ankara over its military incursion in Syria and represent an “unprecedented legal overreach.”
US prosecutors on Tuesday charged the stateowned lender with taking part in a multibillion-dollar scheme to evade US sanctions on Iran. In response, Halkbank’s shares plunged as much as 7 percent yesterday despite a ban on short selling. The indictment came a day after Washington imposed sanctions on Turkish officials, hiked tariffs and halted trade talks in an effort to persuade Ankara to stop attacks against the Kurdish YPG militia in northeastern Syria.
The charges in a US district court in New York, which further strains ties between the NATO allies, alleges Turkey’s second-largest state bank conducted fraud, money laundering, and other sanctions offences.
“These were filed as part of the sanctions introduced against our country by the US government in response to Operation Peace Spring, heroically launched by the Turkish army to secure our borders and establish peace in the region,” Halkbank said of the incursion now in its eighth day. Turkey’s second-largest state bank said it did not engage in sanctions violations as alleged and falls outside of the US Justice Department’s jurisdiction since it has no branches or employees in the United States. “Therefore the decision to indict is an unprecedented legal overreach,” it said.
The case against Halkbank follows from a previous criminal case that came to light in 2016 against TurkishIranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who was accused of playing a central role in the sanctions evasion scheme. Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a former Halkbank deputy general manager, was arrested in New York the following year and was later sentenced to 32 months in prison. He returned to Turkey in July after serving out his sentence.
Zarrab pleaded guilty and testified for US prosecutors. He said Iran, with the help of Halkbank and Turkish government officials including President Tayyip Erdogan, used a web of shell companies and sham transactions in gold, food and medicine to sidestep US sanctions.
Turkey cast that case as a political plot against Erdogan’s government and said it was an extension of a 2013 domestic corruption investigation, which Ankara says was launched by the network of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric. “The Halkbank case has always been on the table as political leverage,” said a banking analyst who declined to be named.
Markets on edge
Before Turkish markets opened, authorities banned short selling on seven large Turkish bank stocks including Halkbank. Selling shares in the banks only to buy them later in the session was also banned, authorities said. State banks - which have sold dollars to defend the lira since the Syria incursion began last week were yesterday squeezing funding in an offshore FX swaps market to cushion the blow from the Halkbank indictment, a bond trader said.
Halkbank stock nonetheless fell as much as 7.2 percent at the open and was down 4.8 percent at 0939 GMT. The main banking index, which has fallen more than 16 percent this month on fears of US repercussions, was down 2.4 percent while Turkey’s broader stock index was off 1.3 percent. Turkey’s incursion into northeast Syria has tested its ties with the United States and could imperil its economy’s recovery from last year’s currency crisis. It came after President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw US troops from the area.
The Kurdish YPG, which spearheaded the USbacked Syrian Democratic Forces, was a main US ally in the fight against Islamic State. Turkey’s lira has declined some 10 percent against the dollar this year, due largely to worries that Washington would sanction Ankara over its purchase of Russian missile defence systems. But the currency has firmed this week since the US sanctions were announced and deemed lighter than expected. After the Halkbank indictment, the lira was up 0.3 percent at 5.9015 against the dollar.
Interventions
Following the Halkbank charges, the Borsa Istanbul said its CEO temporarily banned short selling in banking shares within the top BIST-30 Index. The Capital Markets Board said it would protect investors and promote market stability. The banking analyst called it “a sort of intervention on the free market” and said authorities were motivated not only by Halkbank but the 8 percent fall in bank stocks on Monday.
Sadrettin Bagci, another bank analyst, at Deniz Yatirim, said Halkbank had the ability to absorb a possible fine of between $1.3-2.3 billion, depending on the capital measurement. “We think that a possible direct fine has been largely priced in the share price,” he said.
The US sanctions and increased tariffs risk slowing Turkey’s recovery from recession after last year’s crisis chopped nearly 30 percent off the value of the lira. The crisis was set off by concerns over deteriorating USTurkey ties and political interference in monetary policy.
State banks stepped in to sell dollars in March when the lira briefly tumbled, and traders said they intervened again in the last two weeks. The bond trader said they turned attention on Wednesday to the one-week FX swap market, where rates jumped to 20.25 percent and tested a 2-1/2 month high hit earlier this week. The Turkish stocks covered by the short selling ban are: Akbank, Garanti Bank, Halkbank, Is Bank , TSKB, VAKIFBANK and Yapi Kredi Bank.