Reza Zarrab, a central cooperating witness in the U.S. criminal probe of Halkbank's alleged role in facilitating Iran's evasion of sanctions, will be sentenced on July 14 in Manhattan federal court, according to court records filed Monday. The scheduled sentencing date was set by U.S. District Judge Richard Berman.
Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader who pleaded guilty on October 26, 2017 to a charge of conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions, is appearing for formal sentencing almost nine years after his guilty plea. His testimony previously played a key role at a 2017 New York trial in which former Halkbank official Mehmet Hakan Atilla was convicted of aiding Iran in avoiding U.S. sanctions.
Separately, U.S. prosecutors brought charges against Halkbank in 2019 alleging the bank helped Iran bypass sanctions. Halkbank entered a not-guilty plea in response to those charges. In March, prosecutors said they had reached an agreement with Halkbank under which they would seek to dismiss the case if the bank met certain conditions, including restrictions designed to prevent transactions that would benefit Iran.
According to court filings, Judge Berman scheduled Zarrab's sentencing while he continues to consider the government’s request to drop the indictment against Halkbank based on that agreement. The magistrate paused the Halkbank case for a 90-day period to allow the bank time to demonstrate compliance with the conditions laid out by prosecutors.
The March agreement between prosecutors and Halkbank was followed by a rise in the bank's shares on the Istanbul stock exchange, a market response noted in the filings. Judge Berman is due to hold a hearing on June 17 to address the prosecutors' request to dismiss the indictment against the bank and to review evidence of Halkbank's compliance with the terms of the deal.
At present, the schedule includes Zarrab's July 14 sentencing and the June 17 hearing on the potential dismissal of the Halkbank case. The filings do not provide additional details beyond the dates and the conditions referenced by prosecutors in their agreement with the bank.