Halkbank Agrees to Appear in US Court in Sanctions Case

* Photo: New York County Courthouse / Wiki

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Accused of evading the US sanctions against Iran, Turkey's state-owned Halkbank has agreed to appear in court.

As reported by state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), the bank was represented by the law firm King & Spalding at the last hearing on February 25. The attorneys said that they agreed to appear at the proceedings.

District Court Judge Richard Berman asked the attorneys to have a written authorization from the bank to proceed.

The next hearing of the case will be held on March 3 at 11 a.m.

What happened?

On October 15, US prosecutors filed a total of six charges against the state-owned Halkbank, including "money laundering" and "fraud."

In a written statement released about the judicial process, it was indicated that Halkbank was the part of a system to evade the US sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. This system was in effect for years and reached billions of dollars in total, the statement read further.

While the prosecutors alleged that Iran could reach otherwise restricted oil revenues of 20 billion dollars thanks to Halkbank, the attorneys of the bank rejected the charges and refused to respond to the allegations in court

As Halkbank refused to appear in court, the US prosecutors were accusing the bank of contempt of court.

In early December 2019, the court rejected Halkbank's request to make a "special and limited appearance" to have the case dropped without having to formally participate in the legal proceedings. The attorneys of Halkbank lodged an appeal against this rejection.

A court of appeals in Manhattan agreed to examine the appeal of Halkbank and requested a temporary stay in the case until it announced its verdict so that the requests of the bank could be heard by a three-judge panel. The federal court rejected the request on February 22. (TP/SD)