us-sanctions 08 September 2017

US charges Turkish former minister with sanctions evasion

The US Justice Department has said that it is charging a Turkish former minister and three others with evasion of Iran sanctions.

The indictment charges Mehmet Zafer Caglayan, Suleyman Aslan, Levent Balkan, and Abdullah Happani with ‘conspiring to use the U.S. financial system to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of transactions on behalf of the Government of Iran and other Iranian entities, which were barred by United States sanctions; lying to U.S. government officials about those transactions; laundering funds in connection with those illegal transactions, including millions of dollars in bribe payments to [Aslan Caglayan] and others used to facilitate the scheme; and defrauding several financial institutions by concealing the true nature of these transactions.’

The indictment further alleges that, ‘Caglayan’s Co-Defendants – Reza Zarrab,  (aka “Riza Sarraf,”) Mehmet Hakan Atilla, Mohammad Zarrab,  (aka “Can Sarraf” and “Kartalsmd”), Camelia Jamshidy, (aka “Kamelia Jamshidy,”) and Hossein Najafzadeh, who previously were charged in this case with the same offenses – participated in the same overarching scheme to violate and evade prohibitions against Iran’s access to the U.S. financial system.’

 

More at:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-turkish-minister-economy-former-general-manager-turkish-government-owned-bank