Turkey slams ‘scandalous’ US sanctions-busting conviction

ISTANBUL: Turkey on Thursday slammed as “scandalous” the fraud conviction in New York of a Turkish banker after an explosive trial over Iran sanctions-busting that implicated ex-ministers and even President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The conviction of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, Deputy Chief Executive of Turkish lender Halkbank, is set to further ratchet up strains between Washington and Ankara in an increasingly trouble-plagued relationship.

It also risks leaving Atilla with a hefty jail sentence and Halkbank with fines that could rattle the Turkish banking system.

Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin described the conviction as a “scandalous decision in a scandalous case” and a “shameful scenario”.

“It’s a case that should have been dropped in its entirety,” he told reporters in Ankara. “It is clear it is an interference in Turkey’s domestic affairs.”

The Turkish foreign ministry added that the “so-called evidence” was only fit “for forgery and political abuse”.

A jury in New York found Atilla guilty on Wednesday of five counts of bank fraud and conspiracy.

The federal trial hinged on the testimony of well-connected TurkishIranian businessman Reza Zarrab, who became a government witness after admitting his involvement in the multi-billion dollar gold-foroil scheme to subvert US economic sanctions against Iran.

Zarrab was arrested in Miami in 2016 while seeking to take his family, including his pop star wife Ebru Gundes, on a holiday to Florida, and eventually agreed to testify in a plea bargain.

In testimony on November 30, he said he was told that Erdogan, as prime minister in 2012, and economy minister Ali Babacan had given “instructions” to two public banks to take part in the scheme.

Zarrab also said he paid tens of millions of dollars worth of bribes to then-economy minister, Zaref Caglayan, to facilitate illegal gold transactions with Iran.