Halkbank's Atilla Appeals Sentence He Already Served

State-owned Halkbank's former deputy general manager Atilla, who was released from a US prison in July, has appealed the sentence he received for taking part in a scheme to evade US sanctions on Iran.

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Halkbank's Atilla Appeals Sentence He Already Served

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A US judge in New York set February 10 for Turkey's state-owned Halkbank to challenge possibly being held in contempt of ongoing proceedings.

District Court Judge Richard Berman said in a three-page order that the bank and its counsel have failed to heed two summonses issued since October after a grand jury returned an indictment against Halkbank tied to alleged efforts to evade US sanctions on Iran.

Halkbank had sought to make a "special and limited appearance" before the court in order to have the case dropped without having to formally participate in it, but Berman denied the effort last week.

"The government has not shown that Mr. Atilla was subject to the jurisdiction of the United States," said John Elwood, an attorney of former Deputy General Manager of Halkbank Hakan Atilla.

Although Atilla has already been released from prison, a decision in favor of him could benefit Halkbank, which is facing charges, the Courthouse News reported.

CLICK - Released from Prison in US, Hakan Atilla Arrives in Turkey

Berman said Halkbank and its counsel failed to appear to an October 22 hearing, and that in so doing it "willfully and knowingly disobeyed the Court's order." A second hearing on November 5 saw Halkbank's counsel, listed as King & Spalding, appear but with the sole intent of seeking permission for the "special and limited appearance."

Berman further ordered federal prosecutors to prepare by January 3 possible penalties should Halkbank continue to decline to participate.

In July, Hakan Atilla, 48, the former deputy director-general at the Turkish state lender, was released from a federal prison. He was sentenced to 32 months in prison in May 2018 in New York for violating US sanctions on Iran.

Presiding judge Rosemary Pooler asked assistant US Attorney Michael Lockard where is Rıza Sarraf (Reza Zarrab) and why he is not under trial. "Mr. Zarrab has pleaded guilty pursuant to a cooperating agreement," Lockard told the judge.

What happened?

Hakan Atilla was taken into custody as part of Reza Zarrab investigation at New York JFK airport on March 29, 2017. Charged with violating the US sanctions against Iran, Atilla was arrested.

In April 2017, the case files of Zarrab and Atilla were combined.

While Zarrab faced up to 90 years in prison and a judicial fine of 50 million dollars, on October 26, 2017, it was reported in the news that Zarrab accepted the accusations and collaborated with the prosecutor's office.

Zarrab confessed that the bank he used for the natural gas trade against gold was Halkbank. After he became a confessor and entered into witness protection, Hakan Atilla remained as the sole defendant of the case. When the trial began at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Reza Zarrab was not a defendant, but a witness.

In the course of the hearing, attorneys of Atilla requested that his file be separated from that of Zarrab. However, their request was rejected.

When the trial started, Reza Zarrab said that he had never bribed Hakan Atilla, but bribed General Manager of Halkbank Süleyman Aslan. Regarding the latter allegation, Atilla stated that he had no information about it and added that he was not bribed by anyone.

Put on trial at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Atilla was convicted of five of six charges pressed against him.

Accordingly, Hakan Atilla was sentenced to 32 months in prison and a judicial fine of 50 thousand US dollars. The period that he had already served in prison was reduced from his prison term.

Reza Zarrab was not a well-known figure in Turkey until the corruption and bribe investigation on December 17-25, 2013. Zarrab was arrested as part of the investigation on December 21, to be released shortly afterwards.

It was alleged that Zarrab was violating sanctions by bribing public officials and managing Turkey's natural gas purchase from Iran in exchange for gold.

Zarrab was released from prison on February 28, 2014 and the charges brought against him were dropped on the ground that "the evidence was collected without due process of law.

During the operations, 1 million Turkish lira, 800 thousand Euro and 60 thousand US dollars as well as two kilogram gold of Zarrab were confiscated. They were all returned to Zarrab with their interest.

The trial in the US later showed that the money in question was given by Reza Zarrab to Süleyman Aslan as a bribe. Accordingly, one of the main focal points in the US court was the December 17-25 operations.

(TP/VK)