Turkish banker found guilty of disguising sanctioned transactions with Iran

Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a senior banker at Halk Bank in Turkey, was convicted on five charges of conspiracy for inaccurately reporting humanitarian shipments to Iran to hide gold and currency supply to Iranian government.    A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Jan. 3, convicted Mehmet Hakan Atilla on five charges of conspiracy to use the U.S. financial system to hide the true nature of completed transactions that were prohibited by U.S. sanctions against Iran, the Justice Department said in a statement.
   The jury found Atilla guilty of conspiring with others, including Reza Zarrab, who previously pleaded guilty to evading U.S. sanctions, among other offenses, to use the U.S. financial system to transact on behalf of the government of Iran and other Iranian entities, and to defraud U.S. financial institutions by hiding the transactions’ true nature, DOJ said.
   Atilla, Zarrab, and others, among other things, used a Turkish bank at which Atilla acted as deputy general manager of international banking to take “steps” to shield Zarrab’s supply of currency and gold to the government of Iran, Iranian entities, and specially designated nationals using the bank. In doing so, the criminals protected Halk Bank from U.S. sanctions, DOJ said.
   The conspirators also collaborated to make and use false and fraudulent documents to disguise prohibited transactions for Iran, as transactions involving food, which is covered by humanitarian exceptions to the U.S. sanctions regime against Iran.
   As a result, the co-conspirators “induced” U.S. banks to unknowingly process international financial transactions in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, DOJ said. Both Turkish nationals, Atilla and Zarrab each face dozens of years in prison.
   Atilla is scheduled to be sentenced on April 11, before U.S. District Judge Richard Berman. Zarrab’s sentencing date hasn’t been scheduled.
   “Today, after a full, fair, and open trial, a unanimous jury convicted Hakan Atilla, a senior banker at Halk Bank,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Joon Kim said in a statement. “Along with the prior guilty plea of Reza Zarrab, two men at the heart of this massive and brazen scheme that blew a billion-dollar hole in the Iran sanctions regime now stand convicted of serious federal crimes.”