Turkish Halkbank announces settlement of US criminal case linked to Iran
Under the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement, the bank “will not admit to any criminal offenses and will not pay any court or administrative fines,” AFP quotes the bank’s Monday evening statement. The move is essentially aimed at drawing a line under a case that has long been a source of tension in US-Turkey relations.
In 2019, US prosecutors filed criminal charges against Halkbank over suspicions of involvement in a years-long scheme to launder billions of dollars in Iranian oil and gas revenues in violation of sanctions against Tehran. After submitting a compliance report, Halkbank and US prosecutors in New York will send the court a joint letter requesting dismissal of the case.
The bank said it was informed by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) that it had closed its administrative proceeding against Halkbank “without taking any further action.”
Signs that Trump was ready to end the protracted legal battle emerged after it was discussed at talks with Erdogan at the White House in September. Speaking to journalists a month later, Erdogan said Trump had assured him the complicated legal problem with Halkbank was “resolved.”
The DOJ had charged Halkbank with six counts of fraud, money laundering and sanctions violations in one of the most serious sanctions violation cases it had ever pursued. Court documents stated that laundered funds were used to purchase gold, while transactions were disguised as food and medicine purchases to qualify under humanitarian exemptions from sanctions.
