Former Halkbank executive Hakan Atilla resigns as head of İstanbul Stock Exchange

Atilla served 24 months in prison in the US for helping Iran evade sanctions before being appointed as the head of Borsa İstanbul.

İstanbul

Then Finance Minister Berat Albayrak welcomes Atilla as he returns to Turkey
in July 2019 after being released from prison in the US. (Photo: AA)

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Hakan Atilla has resigned as the general manager of İstanbul Stock Exchange (Borsa İstanbul), confirming the rumors that have been going on over the past few weeks.

Borsa İstanbul has announced that the resignation has been approved by its board of directors and the Capital Markets Board has been notified about the decision.

Attila served as the state-run Halkbank's deputy general manager responsible for international banking between 2011 and 2018 and served 28 months in prison in the US as part of a lawsuit against Halkbank in the country for evading Iran sanctions.

What happened?

Reza Zarrab, a businessperson with dual citizenship of Iran and Turkey, was taken into custody at Miami Airport on March 19, 2016. He was remanded in custody on March 21.

He was charged with violating sanctions against Iran, money laundering, "conspiracy against the US," and defrauding US banks.

During Zarrab's trial, Turkey sent a diplomatic note to the US embassy, requesting information about the businessperson as it was not able to hear from Zarrab and was concerned about his life safety.

As part of the same investigation, Hakan Atilla, the then deputy general manager of Halkbank, was detained at New York JFK Airport on March 29, 2017. He was also remanded in custody shortly after.

The court combined the cases of Atilla and Zarrab in April 2017.

In his first hearing on April 27, Zarrab facing up to 95 years of imprisonment denied the accusations of conspiring to evade US sanctions against Iran, money laundering and bank fraud.

Facing a prison sentence of up to 90 years and a 50 million US dollars fine, Zarrab became a confessor in October 2017. He admitted that he used Halkbank to trade gold for natural gas.

After Zarrab's confession, Attila remained the sole defendant in the trial.

In September 2017, then Minister of Economy Zafer Çağlayan, former Halkbank General Director Süleyman Aslan, Halkbank Deputy General Director in Charge of International Operations Levent Balkan and Zarrab's worker Abdullah Happani were added as defendants.

On October 26, Zarrab pleaded guilty and admitted that he bribed then Minister of Economy Zafer Çağlayan and explained the business traffic he followed to evade sanctions.

On January 3, 2018, jury members found Atilla guilty of five of six charges. He was sentenced to 32 months in prison on May 16, 2018.

After completing his sentence, Attila returned to Turkey on July 24, 2019.

On October 15, 2019, US prosecutors charged Halkbank with six offenses: defraud the US, conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

In October 2019, he was appointed as the director-general of Borsa İstanbul stock exchange.

(HA/VK)