US judge refuses to recuse himself from Halkbank trial

Turkey's state-owned bank had applied for recusal, claiming that Judge Berman had "relations with Gulenists."

İstanbul

US judge refuses to recuse himself from Halkbank trial

US Southern District Court (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

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US District Judge Richard Berman, who is overseeing the criminal case against Turkey's state-owned Halkbank for violating sanctions against Iran, has rejected the bank's request for recusal.

Berman stated yesterday (August 24) that Halkbank's request had no substantive merit and rejected its claim that he was not impartial.

Reza Zarrab, who was also tried and convicted for evading Iran sanctions, also made a similar application four years ago, the judge noted. "Halkbank's recusal motion is a belated rerun of the Zarrab recusal motion, supplemented by 1,014 additional pages of exhibits and two purported expert declarations."

In their request for the recusal of the judge Berman, Halkbank's attorneys had claimed that he had relations with Fethullah Gülen, a US-based cleric who is held responsible for the 2016 coup attempt.

Charged with several offenses, including bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to evade sanction, Halkbank pleaded not guilty on March 31. The next hearing of the case will take place on March 1, 2021.

What happened?

Reza Zarrab, a businessperson with dual citizenship of Iran and Turkey, was taken into custody at Miami Airport on March 19, 2016. He was remanded in custody on March 21.

He was charged with violating sanctions against Iran, money laundering, "conspiracy against the US," and defrauding US banks.

During Zarrab's trial, Turkey sent a diplomatic note to the US embassy, requesting information about the businessperson as it was not able to hear from Zarrab and was concerned about his life safety.

As part of the same investigation, Hakan Atilla, the then deputy general manager of Halkbank, was detained at New York JFK Airport on March 29, 2017. He was also remanded in custody shortly after.

The court combined the cases of Atilla and Zarrab in April 2017.

In his first hearing on April 27, Zarrab facing up to 95 years of imprisonment denied the accusations of conspiring to evade US sanctions against Iran, money laundering and bank fraud.

Facing a prison sentence of up to 90 years and a 50 million US dollars fine, Zarrab became a confessor in October 2017. He admitted that he used Halkbank to trade gold for natural gas.

After Zarrab's confession, Attila remained the sole defendant in the trial.

In September 2017, then Minister of Economy Zafer Çağlayan, former Halkbank General Director Süleyman Aslan, Halkbank Deputy General Director in Charge of International Operations Levent Balkan and Zarrab's worker Abdullah Happani were added as defendants.

On October 26, Zarrab pleaded guilty and admitted that he bribed then Minister of Economy Zafer Çağlayan and explained the business traffic he followed to evade sanctions.

On January 3, 2018, jury members found Atilla guilty of five of six charges. He was sentenced to 32 months in prison on May 16, 2018.

After completing his sentence, Attila returned to Turkey on July 24, 2019.

On October 15, 2019, US prosecutors charged Halkbank with six offenses: defraud the US, conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

In October 2019, he was appointed as the director-general of Borsa İstanbul stock exchange.

(PT/VK)