Zarrab: Hakan Atilla Didn’t Know Everything, Süleyman Aslan Did

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In the third hearing of trial of then Halkbank Deputy General Director Mehmet Hakan Atilla, Reza Zarrab has started his testimony in Federal District Court in Manhattan by explaining that he spoke about food trade with then largely state-owned Halkbank General Director Süleyman Arslan. Atilla is charged with evading US sanctions on Iran.

Photos of Muammer Güler and Zafer Çağlayan are in the file

Photos of then Minister of Interior Affairs Muammer Güler and then Minister of Economy Zafer Çağlayan were included in the file as evidence.

Zarrab said that Mehmet Hakan Atill was uninformed about some of the issues. In the previous hearings, Zarrab spoke on favor of Atilla and said that Atilla “never asked for bribery”.

“We turned onto food trade as the US started to impose sanctions on the gold trade. I didn’t do food business, I just ‘made it look like I did’. Atilla didn’t know whether these transactions were not actual food trade. On the other hand, Süleyman Aslan did”.

“Iran wasn’t interested in whether it was gold or food trade”

Concerning shifting from gold trade to food trade, Zarrab said that the Iranians didn’t stir any trouble:

“Iran wasn’t interested in what sort of trade it was as long as it received money”.

“We copied Çağlayan’s signature”

In his testimony, Zarrab said “Whenever I call Süleyman Arslan, I was being indebted to him. In order to not have to bribe Aslan, I gave the order to copy his signature”.

What did Zarrab explain in the hearings?

Reza Zarrab accepted to be a witness in the trial of then Halkbank Deputy General Director Mehmet Hakan Atilla charged with evading US sanctions on Iran. Zarrab appeared before jury for the first time on November 29, 2017.

Zarrab explained that Iran hid the source of the money it obtained through its oil and natural gas sales to Turkey by transferring it from account to account via Halkbank, and converted it to gold and transferred it to Dubai. On the first day of the hearing, Zarrab said that then Minister of the EU Egemen Bağış intermediated for him to work with Halkbank and then he bribed then Minister of Economy Zafer Çağlayan to be able to work with Halkbank.

Click - First Day

On the second day, he explained that he bribed then Halkbank General Director Süleyman Arlsan, and Hakan Atill was the one who run the operation as the person who knew best about the methods of money laundering. Zarrab also said that then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and then Vice Prime Minister in Charge of Economy Ali Babacan gave the order as he heard from Zafer Çağlayan.

Click - Second Day

On the third day, he explained why he gave up the gold trade and laundered money through food trade. The US court started to share some of the evidence Zarrab introduced as witness with the public. (HK/TK)