US charges Turkey's Halkbank with evading Iran sanctions

US federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against Turkey's state-run Halkbank Tuesday (October 15th) for allegedly participating in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to evade economic sanctions on Iran, AFP reported.

The Department of Justice said it had charged the bank with six counts of fraud, money laundering, and sanctions offenses.

"This is one of the most serious Iran sanctions violations we have seen," Assistant Attorney General John Demers said in a statement announcing the indictment.

He added Halkbank had allegedly violated sanctions by "illegally giving Iran access to billions of dollars' worth of funds, all while deceiving US regulators about the scheme".

US prosecutors have charged nine individuals in relation to the case, including Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a deputy director general of the bank, who was convicted last year of plotting to help Iran evade US sanctions on Iranian oil proceeds.

Tuesday's indictment alleges that between 2012 and 2016 the Turkish bank and co-conspirators used front companies in Iran, Turkey, the UAE and elsewhere to get round a ban on Iran's access to the US financial system.

They say Halkbank allowed illegal Iranian money to be deposited with it, including the proceeds of sales of Iranian oil and gas. Iran's government then used the money to buy gold.

Halkbank illicitly transferred approximately $20 billion worth of restricted Iranian funds, prosecutors allege.

They claim that high-ranking officials in Turkey's government received bribes worth tens of millions of dollars paid from the proceeds of the scheme to shield it from US regulators.

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