Sign up to create alerts for Instruments,
Economic Events and content by followed authors
Free Sign Up Already have an account? Sign In
Quotes
All Instrument Types
- All Instrument Types
- Indices
- Equities
- ETFs
- Funds
- Commodities
- Currencies
- Crypto
- Bonds
- Certificates
Please try another search
🚨 Our Pro Data Reveals the True Winner of Earnings Season Access Data
Turkey's Halkbank agrees to respond to U.S. criminal charges
By Brendan Pierson
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Turkey's state-owned Halkbank (IS:HALKB) has agreed to enter a formal plea of not guilty to criminal charges that it helped Iran evade U.S. sanctions, backing down from its previous refusal to answer the allegations, a lawyer for the bank said on Tuesday.
The bank has maintained that the federal court in Manhattan where it is charged has no jurisdiction over it. The case, which has caused tension between the United States and Turkey, accuses Halkbank of using money servicers and front companies in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to evade sanctions through sham transactions in gold, food and medicine.
Andrew Hruska, the bank's U.S. lawyer, said at a court hearing that the bank had been reassured it would not give up its right to challenge the court's jurisdiction by responding to the charges. He said he had been given permission by the bank's general manager to enter a plea on its behalf.
"Now that those issues have been resolved, we're ready to proceed," he said.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman ordered Hruska to obtain written authorization from Halkbank before entering the plea. Another hearing is scheduled on March 3.
The bank's change of course came after U.S. prosecutors asked the judge to hold it in contempt for failing to respond and impose heavy fines, beginning at $1 million per day and doubling each week.
The charges against Halkbank, announced last October, followed related charges brought by U.S. prosecutors against nine individuals since 2016.
They included former Halkbank executive Mehmet Hakan Atilla, who was convicted in January 2018 after another defendant, wealthy Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, pleaded guilty and testified against him.
Atilla returned to Turkey last year after leaving prison, and became general manager of the Istanbul Stock Exchange.
The case is U.S. v. Halkbank, U.S. District Court, Southern (NYSE:SO) District of New York, No. 15-cr-00867.
Related Articles
Add Chart to Comment
Confirm Block
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
Report this comment
I feel that this comment is:
Comment flagged
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.