U.S. prosecutors accuse Turkey's Halkbank of scheme to evade Iran sanctions

By Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday charged Turkey's Halkbank with taking part in a multibillion-dollar scheme to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran.

The charges against the majority state-owned bank mirror those against one of its former executives, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, who was found guilty and sentenced to prison after a trial in federal court in Manhattan last year.

Prosecutors in New York unsealed an indictment of Halkbank a day after U.S. President Donald Trump announced sanctions on Turkey over its military offensive against U.S.-allied Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria.

Trump's unexpected decision to withhold protection from Syria's Kurds after a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Oct. 6 swiftly upended five years of U.S. policy on Syria.

Halkbank could not immediately be reached for comment after business hours in Turkey. A U.S. lawyer for the bank declined to comment.

The indictment said that between 2012 and 2016, Halkbank helped run a scheme that allowed Iran to spend proceeds from sales of its oil and gas on international markets, in violation of U.S. sanctions, using a complex web of front companies.

The scheme ran with the protection of high-ranking officials in Iran and Turkey, some of whom received tens of millions of dollars in bribes, the prosecutors said.

The prosecutors are seeking to compel Halkbank to forfeit money and property, though they did not give a specific amount.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson; Editing by Sandra Maler and Grant McCool)