Reza

There is a celebratory mood in anti-government circles in Turkey over the arrest in the U.S. of Reza Zarrab, the Turkish businessman of Iranian origin, who is reportedly also a citizen of Iran and Azerbaijan. He is charged with conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions and transferring hundreds of millions of dollars to the Iranian administration headed by then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

A U.S. court has rejected the bail application of shady Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab, who was arrested in Florida on charges of fraud and violating international sanctions on Iran.

U.S. judge John O'Sullivan rejected Zarrab's bail request in a hearing which lasted five minutes.

U.S. prosecutor Preet Bharara who has charged Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab for fraud has been in the spotlight of Turkish Twitter users following the news of Zarrab's arrest.

Bharara's Twitter followers increased from around 20,000 to more than 115,000 in just 24 hours with Turkish users mentioning him with admiration and praises.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on March 21 that Iranian origin Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab had been arrested on charges of "engaging in hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of transactions on behalf of the government of Iran and other Iranian entities, which were barred by U.S.

The arrest of Iranian-born Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab in the United States will also help reveal of facts about four former ministers who have been accused of being bribed by Zarrab, the main opposition leader has said. 

The arrest of Reza Zarrab cannot be linked to the Turkish state's Halkbank, Trade Minister Bülent Tüfenkçi said on March 22, adding that U.S. investigators had not demanded any information or documents regarding the issue.

Shares in Turkey's Halkbank  fell 5 percent on March 22 following the arrest in the United States of a Turkish businessman on charges of conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran, traders said.

The Iranian-born businessman, Reza Zarrab, was charged in an indictment filed in a federal court in Manhattan, U.S. prosecutors said on March 21. 

The Turkish lawyer of Iranian-born Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab, who has been arrested in Florida over Iran-related sanction charges, has said they were not expecting such an arrest and they were unaware of the investigation. 

Lawyer ?eyda Y?lmaz also described all accusations against Zarrab as "defendable." 

Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-born Turkish businessman who was acquitted in a vast Turkish graft probe in 2014 after 70 days in jail, has been arrested in Florida on charges of conspiracy to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars in financial transactions for the Iranian government or other entities to evade U.S. sanctions. 

Babek Zanjani, an Iranian businessman currently imprisoned in Iran on corruption charges and a figure connected to Turkey's massive graft case from 2013, has confessed to having 15 billion euros worth of assets abroad, the case's deputy prosecutor has said.

The deputy prosecutor added that Zanjani made banking and money transactions in Turkey, Iraq, Tajikistan and Malaysia.