Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 11
By Emil Ilgar – Trend:
The Manhattan Attorney has announced charges against Turkish and Iranian nationals for conspiring to evade US sanctions against Iran as well as other offences.
“They allegedly used the US banking system to conduct international financial transactions for Iranian entities,” Department of Justice’s official website reported.
Habibollah Zarei, Bora Deniz, Nesteren Zarei Deniz and Abdullah Evren Erdem are accused of conducting hundreds of millions of dollars worth of transactions on behalf of the government of Iran and other Iranian entities using the US financial system, which was barred by United States sanctions.
They are also accused of laundering funds in connection with those illegal transactions and defrauding several financial institutions by concealing the true nature of these transactions.
“The four defendants are alleged to have orchestrated fraudulent transactions that were intended to hide the fact that the transactions were for the benefit of Iranian entities and to have laundered funds in connection with that illegal activity,” said the Department of Justice.
All four defendants currently remain at large.
The charges on Turkish and Iranian citizens come as the Manhattan Attorney also announced Nov. 7 that the files of four other Iranian and Turkish citizens – charged of evading the sanctions – were submitted to a court.
According to a report, superseding indictment alleges that four defendants – Mohammad Zarrab, Reza Zarrab, Camelia Jamshidy and Hossein Najafzadeh – allegedly used the US banking system to conduct international financial transactions for an Iranian airline put under sanctions for supporting terrorist groups.
The superseding indictment further alleges that they participated in financial transactions for the benefit of Mahan Air, an Iranian airline sanctioned for providing services for the Iranian Qods Force and Hizbullah.
Reza Zarrab was arrested on March 19, 2016, and is scheduled to stand trial on January 23, 2017.
Mohammad Zarrab, Jamshidy and Najafzadeh remain at large.