Halkbank

Turkey’s Halkbank said on Jan. 4 that it has not been party to U.S. case of Turkish banker Hakan Atilla nor is there administrative or financial decision taken against bank by court.

A US jury on Wednesday found a Turkish banker guilty of helping Iran evade US sanctions, after a nearly four-week trial that has strained diplomatic relations between the United States and Turkey.

Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive at Turkey's majority state-owned Halkbank, was convicted on five of six counts he faced, including bank fraud and conspiracy, in Manhattan federal court.

A U.S. judge on Jan. 2 refused to order a mistrial in the case of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the former deputy general manager at Turkey’s majority state-owned Halkbank who is charged with helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions.

U.S. prosecutors on Dec. 19 urged a New York jury to find Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive at Turkey’s majority state-owned Halkbank, guilty of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions, while Atilla’s lawyers said he was a “blameless pawn.”

Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül has said he will tell his U.S. counterpart Jeff Sessions that the New York trial of former Halkbank deputy general manager Hakan Atilla, charged with helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions, is “not legal and should be ended.”

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has claimed that the New York trial of former Halkbank Executive Hakan Atilla is “biased and political,” adding that that the key witness of the case, Reza Zarrab, should be tried in Turkey.

Police in Istanbul detained a total of 17 suspects on Dec. 5 as part of an investigation into Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, who testified at the trial of former Halkbank executive Hakan Atilla in the U.S. over evading sanctions on Iran.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Dec. 3 accused Washington of trying to discredit Turkey because it did not submit to scenarios, in a reference to a New York trial of former Halkbank deputy general manager Hakan Atilla over evading U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab began to testify a New York trial late on Nov. 29 about how he helped Iran evade U.S. economic sanctions in the case of the former Halkbank deputy general manager Hakan Atilla.

Turkey will do “whatever is necessary” if its banking sector is affected by the U.S. trial of former state Halkbank deputy manager Hakan Atilla in a case regarding a conspiracy to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek vowed on Nov. 29.