Richard Berman

The arrested Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, who is being tried in the United States on money laundering and sanction-breaching charges, has told the court he has been using Prozac anti-depressant drugs. 

He did not cite the reason for the usage and did not state how long he had been using them for. 

The arrested Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, who is being tried in the U.S. on charges of fraud, violating sanctions on Iran, committing bankruptcy fraud, and laundering money, has reportedly been diagnosed with depression. 

A jury trial against Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab that was scheduled to begin on Jan. 23, 2017, has been suspended until Oct. 16 after the judge in the fraud case ruled that the defendant's legal team required extra time to prepare for an additional indictment regarding Zarrab's alleged ties to Hezbollah.

A U.S. judge on Oct. 17 rejected Iranian-Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab's bid to dismiss an indictment accusing him of conspiring to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions for the Iranian government or other entities in order to evade U.S. sanctions. 

Defense lawyers asked a U.S. federal judge on Oct. 5 to throw out a case against an Iranian-Turkish tycoon accused of defying sanctions on Tehran.

A recusation demand submitted by arrested Iranian-Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab's lawyers against his case's judge has been rejected for "lacking merit," despite the defense's attempts to validate the demand by quoting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The prosecutor probing Iranian-Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab on charges of money laundering and sanctions evasion has sent a letter to the court with a demand to overturn the defendant's recent appeal to replace the case's judge over a suspicion of bias.