Turks’ anger as banker guilty of helping evade Iran sanctions
Turkey reacted furiously to the fraud conviction in New York of a Turkish banker for his role in helping Iran to evade American sanctions.
The conviction of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a senior executive at state-owned Halkbank, is likely to increase tension between Washington and Ankara amid allegations of corruption at the highest levels of political life in Turkey.
“The US court ... has interfered in Turkey’s domestic affairs in an unprecedented way based on so-called evidence that is only fit for forgery and political abuse,” the Turkish foreign ministry said.
On Wednesday, a New York jury found Atilla guilty of five charges, including conspiracy and bank fraud. He was found not guilty of money laundering.
The Turkish foreign ministry branded the US ruling as “unfair and unfortunate” and “a shame of law”, while Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman described the conviction as a “scandalous decision in a scandalous case”.
The trial provoked huge intrigue in Turkey as the star prosecution witness described a complex scheme of money transfers worth billions of dollars, all lubricated by bribes to government figures.
Throughout the proceedings, Mr Erdogan railed against the numerous allegations that he said were part of an American conspiracy to blackmail and blemish his country.
Atilla, 47, showed no emotion as the verdict was read out and his wife burst into tears in the public gallery.
He had denied all charges, and his lawyers sought to portray him as a “helpless pawn” and lowly bureaucrat who was not present at key meetings where the scheme was hatched.
But prosecutors argued his grasp of international sanctions was crucial to devising complicated financial manoeuvres that allowed Iran access to billions of dollars in oil profits held in Turkish banks.
Joon Kim, the acting US attorney in Manhattan, said after the verdict: “Foreign banks and bankers have a choice: you can choose wilfully 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.”
Nine people have been indicted in the US for their alleged roles in the scam, including a former Turkish minister of the economy.
Atilla, who was arrested last March when he flew into New York’s John F Kennedy airport, is the only one to have stood trial so far. He had been due to appear alongside Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader who was arrested in Florida during the same month.
But Zarrab pleaded guilty and appeared instead as a prosecution witness, describing a string of fake gold and food deals that he used to disguise sanctions-busting money transfers.
Zarrab is married to Ebru Gundes, a Turkish pop star and TV personality. His jetset lifestyle has long been a staple of celebrity magazines and his presence guaranteed the trial was closely watched at home.
He described a sprawling scheme that he said included bribes to Turkish government officials and was carried out with the blessing of Mr Erdogan, who was prime minister at the time.
In New York, members of the Turkish diaspora filled the courtroom and a second room where the proceedings were relayed on closed-circuit TV.
The allegations had already been investigated in Turkey, but the case was dropped in a purge of the judiciary and law enforcement offices.
Government officials claimed the allegations were all part of a plot dreamed up by followers of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric, to discredit Mr Erdogan’s administration.
The witnesses included Huseyin Korkmaz, a Turkish policeman, who investigated Zarrab’s ties to government officials in 2012 and 2013.
He said he was jailed in retaliation for his work before fleeing to the US carrying his evidence with him.
“For years, Mehmet Hakan Atilla conspired to use the American financial system to conduct millions of dollars’ worth of illegal transactions on behalf of the government of Iran,” said acting assistant attorney general Dana Boente.
“He used his high rank at a Turkish bank to disguise the transactions as humanitarian food payments and deceive American officials, but now, after receiving due process of law, he has been held accountable in court, by an impartial jury.”
The judge, Richard Berman, rejected a request for a retrial.
Cathy Fleming, one of Atilla’s lawyers, said they planned to appeal.
Sentencing is scheduled for April 11.
He used his high rank at a Turkish bank to disguise the transactions as humanitarian food payments DANA BOENTE Acting US assistant attorney general