Federal Judge at Manhattan He sent the case against Turkish state bank Halkbank, who was facing charges of circumventing sanctions against Iran, after the government of USA He withdrew the prosecution against the bank.
Turkiye Halk Bankasi, known as Halkbank, has been facing charges since 2019, including fraud and money laundering. The bank was accused of making transactions between 2012 and 2016 that violated US sanctions against Tehran.
Manhattan prosecutor Jay Clayton, Donald Trump's candidate for a new Director of National Intelligence, decided to drop the charges following the conditional termination agreement (DPA) in March with the bank.
The prosecutor's spokesman pointed out to Judge Richard Berman Turkey's contribution to the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas after the war began on 7 October 2023.
This case had intensified diplomatic relations between Turkey and the US.
Prior to the indictment against Halkbank, its deputy director, Mehmet Hakan Atila, was already facing charges for the same offences.
He was sentenced to 32 months in prison in 2018, before being granted early release in 2019 and then deported from the US.
During the trial of a former bank executive, Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarab testified against Atila and involved Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish ministers in the case.