Judge Rejects Reza Zarrab's Request for $50 Million Bail

Richard Berman, a federal judge in Manhattan, New York, rejected the request of Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish businessman, for a $50 million bail on Thursday. The 33-year-old Zarrab was arrested in March in Miami while traveling with his wife and five-year-old daughter to Disney World and is accused of hundreds of millions of dollars in financial transactions with Tehran aimed at circumventing U.S. sanctions against Iran. According to Reuters, these charges could lead to a sentence of up to 30 years in prison for Zarrab. Zarrab has hired some of the top lawyers in New York to defend him in court. His attorneys had requested the federal court to allow him to be placed under house arrest in a Manhattan apartment under 24-hour supervision by guards he would pay for, in exchange for the $50 million bail. However, Judge Richard Berman rejected this request after two weeks of consideration, stating that Zarrab's substantial assets and lack of ties to the U.S. increase the risk of flight, especially since he could travel to countries like Turkey and Iran that do not have extradition treaties with the U.S. Judge Berman emphasized that none of the conditions requested by Zarrab's lawyers could guarantee that he would appear in court on the trial date. This federal judge stressed that serious charges are against Zarrab, which, if proven, could result in a lengthy prison sentence. The U.S. Attorney's Office has also charged Camelia Jamshidi and Hossein Najafzadeh, a senior employee of Bank Mellat in Iran, with complicity with this Iranian-Turkish businessman. The U.S. Attorney's Office claims that these three individuals helped the Iranian government evade U.S. sanctions from 2010 to 2015 by transferring money through companies owned by Zarrab in banks in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to individuals and entities in Iran, including Bank Mellat, one of the largest banks in Iran. Zarrab was arrested in Miami two months after the lifting of sanctions against Iran, which resulted from that country's nuclear agreement with world powers. Zarrab was also detained for two months at the beginning of 2013 during a wide-ranging investigation into corruption involving senior Turkish officials.