Reza Zarrab (Persian: رضا ضراب, Turkish: Rıza Sarraf;[4] born 12 September 1983) is an Iranian-born businessman based in Turkey.
[10] His charges; conspiracy to defraud, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, money laundering, and bank fraud; could bring up to 70 years in prison if found guilty in the US Federal Court.
[2] Zarrab's parents remained in Baku through 2010–11; in 2013 they were granted Turkish citizenship reportedly through facilitation of then Interior Minister Muammer Güler.
Zarrab, who has a business affiliation with the Iranian billionaire and business magnate Babak Zanjani, was detained in Istanbul due to his involvement with the sons of three ministers (Erdoğan Bayraktar, Muammer Güler and Zafer Çağlayan) in the Turkish government and Egemen Bağış, the former minister for EU Affairs and Turkey's chief negotiator in accession talks with the European Union,[20][21][22] in an alleged bribery, corruption and smuggling racket.
The Ministers of Interior Affairs, Economic Relations, and Environment and Urbanization – Muammer Güler, Zafer Çaglayan, and Erdoğan Bayraktar, respectively – had to resign from their positions.
[42] However, it is claimed that Erdoğan, on 21 September 2016 during a special meeting with then Vice President Joe Biden, requested Zarrab's release from jail and prosecutor Bharara to be dismissed from his position.
[45] Halkbank Deputy Chief Executive Mehmet Hakan Atilla, who was in connection with Zarrab, was arrested in the United States in March 2017 with the charges of "conspiring to evade US sanctions against Iran and other offenses".
[46] Afterwards, it was announced in September 2017 that the US charged then Turkish Minister of Economic Affairs Zafer Caglayan and former General Manager of Halk Bank Suleyman Aslan with offenses similar to Zarrab's.
[49] It is also alleged that Erdoğan wanted the US to release Zarrab in return for the detained US citizen pastor Andrew Brunson being held in a prison in Turkey.
[50] Metin Topuz, a Turkish employee of the US Consulate General in Istanbul, was arrested on 4 October 2017 for espionage, being a member of crime network, and taking the evidences of the 2013 corruption investigation to the US.
"[52] On 16 November 2017, NBC News, reported that Zarrab is now cooperating with federal prosecutors in a money-laundering case and that he was then out of jail, a move President Erdoğan had been desperately hoping to avoid.
[56] Two weeks later, Zarrab reappeared in Manhattan court as a witness in the case against Atilla, having accepted a plea deal with federal prosecutors.
[57] A day after Zarrab testified in US Federal District Court, the Turkish government seized the assets of his and his family, including his wife Ebru Gündeş.
[58] In October 2019, Bloomberg News claimed that President Donald Trump had in 2017 urged his then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to persuade the Department of Justice to drop its case against Zarrab.
[59] Access to articles about interviews his money courier Adem Karahan gave to Courthouse News Service,[60] were banned in Turkey on 23 September 2020 by a court in Istanbul.