Shannon
Three of the wannabe sultan's cabinet ministers' sons were arrested with Zarrab in 2013...and the father Caglayan later arrested in 2016....none of this case is as reported and leads straight to Erdogan
Zarrab said right before trial and TESTIFIED Erdogan set the whole thing up to evade sanctions for Iran.
NOVEMBER 30,2017
Reza Zarrab, the US prosecution’s ‘star witness’, who is a Turkish-Iranian gold trader whose prosecution in Manhattan has drawn sharp criticism from Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, implicated Erdoğan in a scheme to evade US sanctions on Iran in a federal trial on Thursday.
Erdoğan personally ordered that two Turkish banks be allowed to participate in an oil-for-gold scheme that violated United States sanctions on Iran, according to testimony by Reza Zarrab. Thus, Zarrab has implicated Erdoğan for the first time in the sanctions busting, which first surfaced when the Turkish police uncovered the activity in 2013 — only to have their investigation quashed by Erdoğan’s government.
Zarrab, the linchpin of a plan to secretly move Iranian money through US banks in violation of American sanctions, has been on the stand since Wednesday at the trial of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive of Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank.
According to a report by NBC News, Zarrab was shown the transcript of a 2012 phone call between himself and an employee that was caught on a wiretap in which they discussed two other Turkish banks that he told the court “wanted to do Iranian business” using the same system he devised for Halkbank.
Zarrab said the country’s then-Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan, told him the two banks were to move Iranian money, too. “Mr. Çağlayan had told me Mr. Prime Minister has given approval,” Zarrab told the jury.
For years, Erdoğan has scrambled to suppress inquiries into the money-laundering scheme and bribery payments to senior Turkish officials that accompanied it. The case began as a corruption investigation in Turkey in 2013, but Erdoğan quashed it amid a purge of investigators and prosecutors.
Since US prosecutors took up the case in New York, Erdoğan has repeatedly protested through diplomatic channels and asked senior US officials to drop it.
Zarrab said that in October 2012, after successfully tapping Iran’s money accumulating in Turkey, he helped devise a similar plan to launder Iranian funds that were piling up in India, also by moving them through Turkey. The new plan would involve a handful of Turkish banks, including Ziraat Bank.
“Indian clients would first create an account at Halkbank and then the buyer of crude oil in India would deposit money directly into the account. Funds would then go to another Turkish bank and Zarrab would take it from there,” he said.
Zarrab testified that he had paid bribes of 45 million to 50 million euros and $7 million to Çağlayan; he said Çağlayan asked for 50 percent of the profits generated by the scheme, which was being run through Halkbank.
Zarrab also testified on Thursday that Süleyman Aslan, then the top executive at Halkbank, had sought a meeting at his old office. Aslan said he was getting nervous about the money-laundering scheme. He said he interpreted the conversation as a request for a bribe. Zarrab said Aslan told him the US had warned him repeatedly about the Iranian transactions.
Turkey’s Vakıfbank claimed on Friday that it had never had any interest or involvement whatsoever in any of the processes mentioned in the US trial of a Turkish bank executive accused of helping to launder money for Iran.
According to local media reports, Zarrab also testified that he used Denizbank for some transactions. Denizbank disputed the reported allegations.“Our transactions only revolved around buying and selling gold domestically, and there were no foreign transactions,” it said in a statement. “Our bank… has had no dealings with the Royal Shipping group owned by Reza Zarrab.”
Turkey’s banking regulator last month denied a local media report that six Turkish lenders could face substantial fines from the United States over alleged violations of Iran sanctions.
https://t.co/5L1AXuyJ2U— Shannon (@Avery1776) July 19, 2020
https://t.co/5L1AXuyJ2U— Shannon (@Avery1776) July 19, 2020
September 21, 2016 at a private meeting with #JoeChina the wannabe sultan begged for Zarrab's release and for Preet's dismissal.
https://t.co/3llRjtykYE— Shannon (@Avery1776) July 19, 2020
6 months prior to arrests in 2013....hello #JoeChina @BenKTallmadge U.S. Chamber Welcomes Vice President Biden, Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan.
That doesn't mean the ministers are guilty Shannon!
Why did they all resign?
That doesn't mean the ministers are guilty Shannon!
Why did they all resign?https://t.co/9efHYtP6Gn— Shannon (@Avery1776) July 19, 2020
That doesn't mean the ministers are guilty Shannon!
Why did they all resign?https://t.co/9efHYtP6Gn— Shannon (@Avery1776) July 19, 2020
2019 upgrade to the case puts one of the fathers/former cabinet members under indictment....the former Economy Ministerhttps://t.co/Xx1Fjovmri— Shannon (@Avery1776) July 19, 2020