US Supreme Court rejects challenge by Turkey’s Halkbank to prosecution
By Luc Cohen
(Reuters) -The high court rejected another offer to avoid fraud, money laundering and conspiracy charges in the United States, allegedly helping Türkiye to avoid American economic sanctions by Halkbank, the lending of the state.
Justice objected to the decision of a sub -court that allowed Halkbank to continue the criminal case imposed by the US government and allowed this decision to stop. Halkbank shares closed 10% lower in Istanbul.
In 2023, the Supreme Court made the previous decision by the same sub -court, allowing the case to progress, but rejected a key defense mounted by the bank at the time.
The case brought by the US federal prosecutors in 2019 became a thorn in the US-Türkiye relations and Tayyip Erdoğan, the President of Türkiye, was called a “illegal, ugly” step.
Halkbank claimed that he was not guilty.
The Supreme Court decided not to hear Halkbank’s appeal, unless both parties settled, cleanses the way for a possible hearing.
Halkbank said he would continue to claim all legal rights.
“Within the framework of the understanding between the United States and Türkiye, attempts to find a legal reconciliation area continue positively.”
The Manhattan US Law Office and prosecutors accused Halkbank of using money servants and front companies in Iran, Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates to help Iran escape from US sanctions.
According to prosecutors, the bank secretly transferred $ 20 billion limited funds, transformed oil revenues to gold and money to benefit Iranian interests and documented fake food shipments.
Halkbank, who wanted the Supreme Court to take the case, argued that as an entity of the Turkish state, another country should be immune from the legal actions in the courts.
In 2023, when the Supreme Court rejected Halkbank’s view that it was protected within the scope of the Federal Foreign Sovereign Transportation Law, the Manhattan -based 2nd US Circuit Court directed the Court of Appeal Court to consider whether the common law provides immunity. Common law refers to the legal principles developed by judges for centuries, not by certain regulations.
The 2nd circuit rejected this issue and that last year’s common legal principles of Halkbank claimed that they were overcome without prosecution about commercial and civil government activities.
President Donald Trump’s management asked the Supreme Court to object to Halkbank’s 2nd circuit decision. The Ministry of Justice told the Supreme Court on 6 August that the principles of “common law” did not protect foreign state companies without criminal prosecution.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Will Dunham and Matthew Lewis)
