The United States Supreme Court rejects the Halkbank challenge of Türkiye to prosecution

For Luc Cohen

(Reuters) -The Supreme Court decreased on Monday by hearing another offer from Turkey Hikbank state lender to avoid fraud charges, money laundering and conspiracy in the United States for allegedly helping to evade US economic sanctions.

The judges rejected Hikbank’s appeal of the decision of a lower court that allowed the criminal case presented by the United States government to continue, allowing that decision to be maintained. The Supreme Court in 2023 launched a previous decision of the same lower court that had allowed the case to advance, but at that time rejected a key defense mounted by the bank.

Brought by the Federal Prosecutors of the United States in 2019, the case has been a thorn in relations between the United States and Turkey, with Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan calling him an “illegal and ugly” step.

Halkbank declared himself innocent.

The prosecutors of the Office of the United States Prosecutor of Manhattan accused Halkbank of using money and frontal companies in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to help Iran to evade the sanctions of the United States.

The bank transferred $ 20 billion of restricted funds, made oil revenues into gold and effective to benefit Iranian interests and documented fake food shipments to justify transfers of oil revenues, according to prosecutors.

By asking the Supreme Court to resume the case, Halkbank argued that, as a Turkish state entity, it should be immune to legal actions in the courts of another country.

In 2023, when the Supreme Court rejected Hikbank’s statement that it was protected by the Federal Law of Exterior Sovereign Immunities, he directed the Second Court of Appeals of the United States Circuit based in Manhattan to consider whether the customary law provided immunity. Consuetudinal law refers to legal principles developed for centuries by judges, not by specific statutes.

The second circuit considered that the issue and last year rejected Hikbank’s argument that the principles of customary law immunized him from the prosecution related to commercial and non -governmental activities.

The administration of President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to reject Hikbank’s appeal of that decision of the second circuit. The Department of Justice told the Supreme Court on August 6 that the principles of “customary law” do not protect foreign state -owned companies from criminal prosecution.

(Luc Cohen report in New York; Will Dunham edition)