NCRI Staff
NCRI – Reza Zarrab, a well-off Turkish-Iranian businessman, is going to testify in court in the United States with regards to a case that implicates senior officials in Iran and Turkey of being involved in activities that have helped Iranian regime to evade US sanctions that it is subject to.
Zarrab has pleaded guilty to being involved in the scheme. He is expected to testify that the scale of the activities was enormous and that senior government officials of both countries had taken action to disguise the plots.
The trial of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, Zarrab’s co-conspirator and a Turkish banker, started yesterday in New York.
Assistant US Attorney David Denton said that the two defendants will speak about how they were able to launder oil and gas revenues from Iran through the US banking system, while ensuring that senior officials were able to cover the conspiracy up by providing bribes and incentives and by paying them off. This is a blatant violation of sanctions.
Yesterday, court documents were unsealed and it became clear that Zarrab met with senior Iranian and Turkish officials in 2012 to discuss sending Iranian gas revenues to a bank in Turkey. They also discussed the bribe that would be given to an executive of the Turkish bank. At the meeting was the governor of the Central Bank of Iran and the finance director of the National Iranian Oil Company at that time.
The Assistant US Attorney said that other schemes were set up in which Iran would buy gold and then smuggle it to the United Arab Emirates where it would be sold for US dollars. US sanctions law bans Iran from using US financial institutions as well as US currency. There are exemptions to the law such as the purchase of food items for humanitarian reasons and some of the illicit transactions were disguised as such.
Zarrab admitted his role in evading US sanctions and laundering money for Iran. He is expected to speak about how the operations were carried out and tell the truth about the situation.
Attila’s lawyer said that Zarrab was a con man that has been hidden away by the FBI.
There are other people in the case – up to eight – and they have close links with the Turkish government.
When Zarrab was arrested last year, the Turkish government made repeated calls for him to be released.
The deputy prime minister of Turkey said that Zarrab is a “hostage” and is being forced into testifying against his government.
Zarrab was born in Iran but is a citizen of Turkey and is married to a well-known Turkish singer.
The scheme that is being tried in the US was uncovered by police in Turkey and he was originally arrested there. However, the charges were dropped by Turkish authorities and the Turkish government claims that they were fabricated.
However, the Assistant US Attorney explains that the Turkish officials were paid off and some of the investigating police officers were jailed. Although Turkey was able to drop the case, it could not get rid of the evidence.
