Top Turkish bank executive arrested in multimillion-dollar pro-Iran bank fraud

A senior executive at one of Turkey’s most established state-owned banks was arrested in the United States on Monday in connection with a scheme to evade trade sanctions on nuclear Iran -- ramping up political strains between the U.S. and Turkey.

Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a deputy chief executive officer at Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS, is being accused of shady dealings with Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish gold trader, to launder hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of Iran and Iranian companies through the U.S. financial system.
It was unclear whether Atilla hired lawyers for his defense, Reuters reported.
The consequences of this arrest came at a trying time for U.S.-Turkish affairs. Turkey had been one of the West’s strongest allies in the Middle East for decades, but Zarrab’s arrest and conflicting tactics over Syria’s civil war and fallout have escalated tensions between the United States and Turkey.
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