Reza Zarrab

Reza Zarrab , Turkish Rıza Sarraf , Persian رضا ضراب, DMG Reżā Żarrāb (born September 12, 1983 in Tabriz , Iran ) is an Iranian-Turkish entrepreneur.

Early life

Reza Zarrab grew up in Azerbaijan and Turkey . He has both Turkish and Iranian citizenship. He is also in possession of a Macedonian passport. He began his entrepreneurial career in 2008 with the company Royal Maritime AS, followed by Royal Holding in 2010, which he founded with his brother Mohammed Zarrab (Can Sarraf) . His chauffeur was arrested in 2011 while traveling from Russia to Turkey on the basis of 150 million US dollars he had in cash and was accused of illegally transporting money. Despite the allegations, he was later released.

According to the Twitter account @ haramzadeler333, the Turkish secret service (Millî İstihbarat Teşkilâtı) is said to have informed the then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of the corrupt relationships between Zarrab and some cabinet members of the AKP , whereupon he received Turkish citizenship. Thereupon he was accused by some sides of having bought these with money.

Zarrab was married to the Turkish singer Ebru Gündeş and they have one child.

2013 corruption scandal

→ Main article : 2013 corruption scandal in Turkey

Zarrab was discovered in Turkey on December 17, 2013 in connection with the corruption scandal in Turkey due to entanglements between him and the sons of three AKP ministers ( Erdoğan Bayraktar , Muammer Guler , Zafer Çağlayan ) and a former EU minister ( Egemen Bağış ) arrested. Four days later a court issued an arrest warrant against him, the three ministerial sons and the former EU minister. They were charged with bribery, smuggling and corruption. Zarrab was released in February 2014 at the instigation of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan . Since then he has been considered Erdogan's protégé in public.

Arrest and trial in the US

On March 19, 2016, Zarrab was arrested while on vacation in Miami on suspicion of money laundering . He was accused of violating various provisions of the US embargo decisions on Iran's nuclear program . The US prosecutor accuses Zarrab of money laundering, circumventing the Iran embargo and bank fraud. He acted in the knowledge of the Turkish government. Prosecutor Preet Bharara refused to be released on bail . Zarrab is defended by Rudy Giuliani and Michael Mukasey , among others . During the investigation, a donation from Zarrab to an Emine Erdoğan foundation came to light , whereupon the prosecution accused him of having close links (important to the prosecution) between him and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Despite Erdoğan's statement that the trial was not a matter for Turkey, he and some ministers tried, according to media reports, to convince their American counterparts to drop the charges: on September 21, 2016, Erdoğan had this at a meeting with the then Vice-President of the USA , Joe Biden , tried. His wife also did this with Biden's partner. Bekir Bozdağ , AKP justice minister, tried to do the same. Erdoğan also reportedly tried to secure Zarrab's release with the release of a US pastor arrested in Turkey.

The trial in New York began on November 27, 2017. It became known that Zarrab had reached a deal with the US judiciary and will testify as the key witness in the trial of former Halkbank deputy director Mehmet Hakan Atilla. In court, Zarrab said he ran a multi-billion dollar gold trade between Turkey and Iran to launder Iranian funds. UN and US sanctions were circumvented. In order to make the deal possible, he paid horrific bribes to the Turkish government at the time, including around 50 million euros, seven million dollars and 2.4 million lira to the former Minister of Economics, Mehmet Zafer Çağlayan . Çağlayan had confirmed to Zarrab that the business had been ordered by the then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Finance Minister Ali Babacan . The day after Zarrab's testimony about Erdoğan, a Turkish public prosecutor ordered the property of the entrepreneur and his relatives to be confiscated. In addition, 17 people from Zarrab's environment were arrested.

Others

The Iranian government allegedly saw him as an assistant to the Iranian businessman Babak Sandschani , who was imprisoned for economic crimes in Iran in 2013 and sentenced to death in 2016.

June 2015 Zarrab was recognized by the Turkish government for its export services. In addition to Vice Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş and Finance Minister Nihat Zeybekci , President Erdoğan was also present at the ceremony .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Humeyra Pamuk, Steve Stecklow, Babak Dehghanpisheh, Can Sezer: Special Report - Golden Loophole: How an alleged Turkish crime ring helped Iran , in: Reuters, April 29, 2014
2. ↑ Turkish National Arrested for Conspiring to Evade US Sanctions Against Iran, money laundering and bank fraud. Retrieved December 1, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Turkey corruption allegations included in Reza Zarrab case in US. Retrieved November 29, 2017 . 
4. ^ History of the Royal Holding. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 17, 2015 ; Retrieved November 29, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Gündeş'in eşinin şoförü kaçakçılıktan gözaltında - Haberleri magazine . ( com.tr [accessed November 30, 2017]).
6. ↑ MİT'ten Erdoğan'a Sarraf raporu - BirGün.net | Halkın Gazetesi BirGün. March 19, 2014, accessed November 29, 2017 . 
7. ↑ 5 milyon dolara Türk vatandaşı oldular - Son Dakika Haberler . ( com.tr [accessed November 29, 2017]).
8. ↑ Üç bakana rüşvet suçlaması . In: Radical . ( com.tr [accessed November 29, 2017]).
9. ↑ İstanbul'da yolsuzluk ve rüşvet operasyonu . In: Hürriyet . ( com.tr [accessed November 29, 2017]).
10. ↑ Elke Dangeleit: USA arrests Erdogan's protégé Reza Zarrab , at: heise.de , March 24, 2016
11. ↑ Luisa Seeling: This man could make high-ranking politicians in Turkey nervous . In: sueddeutsche.de . 2016, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed December 1, 2017]).
12. ↑ ^{a b} Bülent Mumay : Erdogan's fight against America . Translation by Sabine Adatepe , in: FAZ, November 24, 2017, p. 15
13. ↑ NY court denies bail for Iranian mogul Zarrab, announces US Attorney Bharara , in: TM, June 16, 2016
14. ↑ Why Giuliani Held a Secret Meeting With Turkey's Leader , NYT, April 20, 2017
15. ↑ US prosecutors say businessman with 'close ties' to Turkey's Erdogan poses flight risk. In: Deutsche Welle (DW.com). May 26, 2016, accessed November 29, 2017 . 
16. ↑ https://twitter.com/colinkahl/status/1182071789737795584?s=21
17. ↑ Bharara on whether Turkey pushed for his ouster - CNN Video. Retrieved November 29, 2017 . 
18. ↑ Attempt to persuade the Turkish government. Retrieved November 29, 2017 . 
19. ↑ Opinion | Why Trump should not swap prisoners with Erdogan. Retrieved November 29, 2017 . 
20. ↑ Markus Bernath: Trial in the USA: Erdoğan's nightmare returns. In: derStandard.de. November 28, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2017 . 
21. ^ Christian Berthelsen: Iran-sanctions trial judge confirms Atilla is only defendant. In: bloomberg.com. November 27, 2017, accessed November 29, 2017 . 
22. ↑ Legal proceedings in the USA put Erdogan in distress . In: tagesspiegel.de , December 1, 2017 (accessed December 2, 2017).
23. ↑ Turkey: Justice confiscates gold dealer Zarrab's property . In: news.ORF.at . December 1, 2017 ( orf.at [accessed December 2, 2017]).
24. ↑ Turkey: Other suspects arrested in Zarrab affair . In: news.ORF.at . December 5, 2017 ( orf.at [accessed December 5, 2017]).
25. ↑ Rohollah Faghihi: The downfall of two Iranian tycoons ( Memento of the original from October 20, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , at al-monitor, May 9, 2016 
26. ↑ Reza Zarrab'a ihracat ödülü . In: Hürriyet . ( com.tr [accessed November 29, 2017]).