Reza Zarrab's Cooperation with U.S. Prosecutors Confirmed

Reports from New York indicate that Reza Zarrab, a Turkish businessman imprisoned in the U.S. for violating sanctions against Iran, has "confessed to his crime" and has entered into cooperation with U.S. prosecutors. Earlier on Tuesday, the judge in this case announced that Zarrab would not be tried in the upcoming court session, and the Turkish banker, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, is currently the "only defendant in court." According to the Associated Press, citing the Deputy District Attorney in New York, Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian businessman, is expected to testify on Wednesday, December 9, about money laundering for the Islamic Republic and violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. Previously, at least two U.S. news outlets reported on November 25 about the "possibility of Zarrab's cooperation" with U.S. prosecutors in the case of Michael Flynn, a former advisor to Trump. Reports had previously circulated in the U.S. that a proposal from the Turkish government to Michael Flynn, an American general and former advisor to Donald Trump, was to take actions in exchange for $15 million that would lead to the extradition of Fethullah Gülen from the U.S. to Turkey. According to these alleged reports, this "bribe" was to be transferred through Reza Zarrab to General Flynn's account. Turkey, particularly President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, accuses Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish cleric residing in the U.S., of orchestrating a failed coup that occurred in the summer of 2016. Now, the Associated Press report published on Tuesday, December 8, states that David Denton, the Deputy District Attorney in New York, revealed in court that the news of Zarrab's cooperation with the FBI and the U.S. judiciary is true. According to this U.S. judicial official, Zarrab has "confessed to his crime" and has agreed to cooperate with judicial authorities in exchange for a reduction in his sentence. According to this official, Reza Zarrab is expected to expose a "vast corruption network" that reaches "high levels of government" in Turkey. According to David Denton, this network was "so large that ministers in both Turkey and Iran supported it." As stated in the indictment against Zarrab, he met with several government "banking and financial" officials in 2012, including the then-governor of the Central Bank of Iran and the financial director of the National Iranian Oil Company. The indictment describes the purpose of these meetings as discussing how to "transfer revenue from Iran's natural gas to a bank in Turkey." The year 2012 coincided with the final period of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, and the head of the Central Bank of Iran at that time was Mahmoud Bahmani, who held the position from 2009 to 2013. According to the Deputy District Attorney in New York, Reza Zarrab has accepted the charges of "violating sanctions and money laundering" and is expected to reveal "complex lies" that the other defendant in this case has "stated." The U.S. prosecution has accused Reza Zarrab, born in Iran and a Turkish citizen, of helping the Iranian government and institutions move hundreds of millions of dollars of their assets to circumvent sanctions between 2010 and 2015. In this case, nine people have been accused, but only two of them, namely Reza Zarrab and Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the managers of Halkbank Turkey, are currently detained in the U.S. In response to Mr. Denton, Mehmet Atilla's lawyer in court on Tuesday described Reza Zarrab as the "mastermind" of this case and labeled him a "liar and corrupt." In this context, Reza Zarrab will "not be tried" in the U.S. Turkey has asked the U.S. to end the case against Reza Zarrab and the Turkish banker. The New York prosecutor called the allegations of political maneuvering in Zarrab's case "ridiculous."