In US trial watched by Erdogan, Turkish banker found guilty

A US jury on Wednesday found a Turkish banker guilty of helping Iran evade US sanctions, after a nearly four-week trial that has strained diplomatic relations between the United States and Turkey.

Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive at Turkey’s majority state-owned Halkbank, was convicted on five of six counts he faced, including bank fraud and conspiracy, in Manhattan federal court.

Atilla was also found not guilty on a money laundering charge. Jurors issued their verdict on the fourth day of deliberations.

Prosecutors had accused Atilla of conspiring with gold trader Reza Zarrab and others to help Iran escape sanctions using fraudulent gold and food transactions.

In several days on the witness stand, Zarrab had described a sprawling scheme that he said included bribes to Turkish government officials and was carried out with the blessing of current President Tayyip Erdogan.

Halkbank had no immediate comment. Attempts to reach Erdogan’s spokesman for comment on the allegations at the trial have been unsuccessful. Erdogan has publicly dismissed the case as a politically motivated attack on his government.

US prosecutors have criminally charged nine people, though only Zarrab, 34, and Atilla, 47, have been arrested by US authorities. Zarrab pleaded guilty and testified against Atilla.

“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,” Joon Kim, the acting US Attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement after the verdict was read. “But you can’t do both.”

The trial included testimony from a former Turkish police officer, Huseyin Korkmaz, who said he investigated Zarrab’s business and ties to government officials in 2012 and 2013.

Korkmaz said he was jailed in retaliation, and eventually fled to the United States, carrying evidence from his investigation with him.

Last week, Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul demanded in a letter to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions that Korkmaz be returned to Turkey, calling him “a fugitive, a terror suspect facing serious allegations.”

The Turkish government has said that followers of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen were behind both the Turkish investigation and the US case, as well as the 2016 failed coup in Turkey. Gulen has denied the accusations. [Reuters]