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The US government has reached a deal with Halkbank to end a years-long prosecution accusing the Turkish bank of helping Iran evade sanctions and launder billions of dollars through the American financial system.
The Department of Justice has struck an agreement to defer prosecution against the state-owned lender, according to a court document filed on Monday.
The case, first filed by federal prosecutors in 2019, had long been a thorn in bilateral relations, with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calling it at the time an “unlawful, ugly” step. Ankara disputed US court jurisdiction over Halkbank, claiming it was protected by sovereign immunity and appealed against the matter all the way to the US Supreme Court, which upheld the prosecution.
Prosecutors cited Turkey’s assistance in negotiating the release of hostages from Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel and helping to negotiate the subsequent ceasefire agreement in reaching the settlement with Halkbank.
The agreement “is in the best interests of the United States”, said the justice department in the filing.
Under the deal, which will be reviewed by a federal court in New York, Halkbank agreed to work with a third party to review its sanctions and anti-money laundering compliance.
The DoJ alleged Halkbank secretly transferred $20bn of restricted Iranian funds and helped launder at least $1bn through the US financial system.
Halkbank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is a developing story
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