Turkish Halkbank's jailed executive denies any links to Zarrab case in US

The Iranian-born Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab has denied charges against him in the case over attempting to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran, while Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a deputy general manager of Halkbank, said he has no connection to the case. 

Atilla is accused of conspiring with Zarrab to conduct illegal transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars through U.S. banks on behalf of the Iranian government and other entities in the country.

Both Zarrab and Atilla are charged with participating in a multi-year scheme to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran.

In the hearing on April 24, Southern District Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Lockard said Zarrab is charged with a "serious national security offense."

Lockard criticized former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey - both members of Zarrab's legal team - during a pretrial hearing before Southern District Judge Richard Berman. He said separate affidavits filed by Giuliani and Mukasey to explain their roles in the case mischaracterized the alleged crimes as not serious or harmful to the U.S. because no transactions involved weapons, nuclear technology or other contraband.

"The entities that benefited from this alleged scheme include the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and agents or affiliates of that entity, Iranian banks that have been sanctioned for their role in providing financing for Iran's nuclear programs, and Iranian commercial airlines," Lockard said, adding that prosecutors would prove Zarrab and coconspirators "worked with high-level government and banking officials in Iran and Turkey after offering those services to Iran in a letter personally addressed to then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." 
...