# Halkbank **Halkbank** — Türkiye Halk Bankası, a Turkish state-owned bank — was indicted by SDNY in 2019 for a multibillion-dollar scheme evading U.S. sanctions on [[Iran]]: laundering Iranian oil revenue through gold trades and fake food shipments (the Reza Zarrab / Mehmet Hakan Atilla scheme). The bank twice fought U.S. jurisdiction to the Supreme Court and lost. Killing the prosecution has been [[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]]'s most persistent personal ask of [[Donald Trump]] across both terms; Turkish officials proposed a ~$100M settlement at the September 2025 White House meeting. The full influence arc is documented in [[Turkey]]. ## See Also - [[Turkey]] - [[Iran]] - [[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]]