Extraterritorial Application of US Sanctions
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Is Erdoğan Holding Europe Hostage? by Behlül Özkan May 24, 2016
TURKEY 2023 Is Erdoğan Holding Europe Hostage? By Behlül Özkan May 24, 2016 In many ways, Turkey is the most important actor shaping the refugee crisis that is currently shaking Europe to its core. Accordingly, predicting the outcome of the drama requires a close study of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s underlying motives and goals. At present, there are nearly 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, which shares a 60-mile border with parts of Syria controlled by the Islamic State, or IS.1 For both the Syrian refugees and IS, Turkey is the door to the West, and President Erdoğan is the final arbiter of Turkish refugee and border security policy. The Turkish president is well aware of the power he derives from this position. An examination of his public statements and negotiating positions makes clear that Erdoğan seeks to use this lever- age to compel the international community to set up safe zones in Syria and to force the European Union to widen access to Turkey while abandoning attempts to hold Turkey to EU standards on democracy and human rights. Erdoğan’s EU leverage In 2013, President Erdoğan’s image suffered a double blow in the eyes of Europe. During the Gezi Park protests in June of that year, the government violently cracked down on millions of Turkish citizens who were protesting the increasingly overbearing rule of then-Prime Minister Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party, or AKP.2 Then, in December, Prime Minister Erdoğan, his family, close associates, and four cabinet minis- ters were implicated in allegations of corruption on a massive scale. -
FY19 FOIA Fincen Internal
DATE REQUEST ID SUMMARY OF REQUEST REQUESTER GoFOIA # RECEIVED Marijuana related Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) The records I am asking you to produce will indicate by Industry Type, Year and Month of filing, States/Territories, and Regulator (all available at https://www fincen gov/reports/sar-stats); and by type of marijuana-related SAR (“Marijuana Limited”, “Marijuana Priority”, and Marijuana Termination”): 19-001-F 10/1/2018 Richards, Jim 2018-10-013 1 the number of financial institutions filing marijuana-related SARs, 2 the number of marijuana-related SARs filed by each financial institution, without naming the institution; 3 the number of suspects listed in each SAR 19-002-F All “Marijuana Limited” SARs filed during Quarter 1 of 2018 10/3/18 Repanich, Tony 2018-08-079 19-003-F FOIA Log for FY18 10/5/18 Kaplan, Thomas 2018-10-044 I am seeking the responsive records for the following FOIA requests to FinCEN (as identified by request number or request ID in your FOIA logs): 19-004-F 10/5/18 Kaplan, Thomas 2018-10-043 2016-01-140, 17-007-F, 17-133-F, 17-172-F, 17-173-F, 17-175-F, 17-245-F, 17-384-F 19-005-F Records pertaining to self 10/9/18 b(6) 2018-10-048 FOIA Log from July 1, 2018 to present, Copy of the Director's daily calendar from July 1, 2018 to present, a copy of all visitor logs from July 1, 2018 to present, and any and all communications, to include but not be limited to official correspondence on congressional letterhead as well as emails sent from the following members of Congress or their staffs, 19-006-F 10/11/2018 -
Turkey: Freedom in the World 2021 Country Report | Freedom Hous
FREEDOM IN THE WORLD 2021 Turkey 32 NOT FREE /100 Political Rights 16 /40 Civil Liberties 16 /60 LAST YEAR'S SCORE & STATUS 32 /100 Not Free Global freedom statuses are calculated on a weighted scale. See the methodology. Overview President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has ruled Turkey since 2002. After initially passing some liberalizing reforms, the AKP government showed growing contempt for political rights and civil liberties, and it has pursued a dramatic and wide-ranging crackdown on perceived opponents since an attempted coup in 2016. Constitutional changes adopted in 2017 concentrated power in the hands of the president. While Erdoğan continues to exert tremendous power in Turkish politics, opposition victories in 2019 municipal elections and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the already shaky economy have given the government new incentives to suppress dissent and limit public discourse. Key Developments in 2020 • As the COVID-19 crisis threatened the economy and the government’s political standing during the year, authorities apparently sought to manipulate official health statistics and launched criminal investigations against medical professionals who released independent information about the outbreak or criticized the official response. Hundreds of ordinary people were also arrested for their social media posts related to the coronavirus. • Prosecutions and campaigns of harassment against opposition politicians, prominent members of civil society, independent journalists, and critics of Turkey’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy continued throughout the year. In December, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) called for the immediate release of Selahattin Demirtaş, leader of the Kurdish-oriented People’s Democratic Party (HDP), who had been imprisoned since 2016 on politically motivated charges; the court’s ruling was ignored. -
The Flynn-Turkey Deal Raises the Obstruction Stakes for the Preet Bharara Firing
THE FLYNN-TURKEY DEAL RAISES THE OBSTRUCTION STAKES FOR THE PREET BHARARA FIRING Twitter is abuzz this morning with the WSJ story (this is the NBC version of it; here’s a paywall free link) that Mike Flynn and his spawn hoped to make up to $15 million for kidnapping Fethullah Gulen and delivering him to Turkey. Investigators for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia’s interference with the U.S. presidential election recently questioned witnesses about the alleged December 2016 meeting between Flynn and senior Turkish officials, two people knowledgeable with the interviews said. The questions were part of a line of inquiry regarding Flynn’s lobbying efforts on behalf of Turkey. Mueller’s investigation into Flynn’s potential deal with Turkey was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Four people familiar with the investigation said Mueller is looking into whether Flynn discussed in the late December meeting orchestrating the return to Turkey of a chief rival of Turkish President Recep Erdogan who lives in the U.S. Additionally, three people familiar with the probe said investigators are examining whether Flynn and other participants discussed a way to free a Turkish-Iranian gold trader, Reza Zarrab, who is jailed in the U.S. Zarrab is facing federal charges that he helped Iran skirt U.S. sanctions. The story has already been told; what’s new about this iteration of it is the eye-popping pay-off, as well as more details about the timing and location of a second meeting. The meeting allegedly took place at the upscale 21 Club restaurant in New York, just blocks always from Trump Tower where Flynn was serving on the presidential transition team. -
REZA ZARRAB, A/K/A “Riza Sarraf,”
Case 1:15-cr-00867-RMB Document 18 Filed 05/25/16 Page 1 of 29 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ECF CASE - v - S1 15 Cr. 867 (RMB) REZA ZARRAB, a/k/a “Riza Sarraf,” Defendant. GOVERNMENT’S MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANT REZA ZARRAB’S MOTION FOR BAIL PREET BHARARA United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York One St. Andrew’s Plaza New York, New York 10007 Michael Lockard Sidhardha Kamaraju Assistant United States Attorneys Of Counsel Case 1:15-cr-00867-RMB Document 18 Filed 05/25/16 Page 2 of 29 TABLE OF CONTENTS PRELIMINARY STATEMENT .................................................................................................... 1 BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................ 2 I. The Indictment ......................................................................................................................... 2 A. Statutory Background ........................................................................................................ 2 B. Offense Conduct ................................................................................................................. 5 C. The Defendant’s Arrest in Miami and Misrepresentations to Pre-Trial Services .............. 7 D. The Defendant’s Assets, Businesses, and Corrupt Political Connections ......................... 8 DISCUSSION .............................................................................................................................. -
The US and Turkey: Erdoğan's Undeserving and Underwhelming Visit to DC
THE US AND TURKEY Erdoğan’s Undeserving and Underwhelming Visit to DC ERIC EDELMAN & DAVID J. KRAMER Trump’s ongoing bromance with Turkey’s authoritarian leader notwithstanding, Congress and the Administration must act to make clear that the United States isn’t giving Erdoğan a blank check to act in the Middle East. Foreign leaders have long coveted invitations to Washington to meet with the President in the White House. Such encounters should be hard to come by, but President Trump has thrown open the Oval Office doors to a number of undeserving foreign officials, including Egypt’s authoritarian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Hungary’s self-declared illiberal Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who met with Trump Wednesday, is the latest on that list. For Trump, the meeting with his Turkish counterpart was a welcome distraction from the impeachment hearings playing out on Capitol Hill. Aside from demonstrating the already well- established warm chemistry between the two leaders, however, the meeting produced no major breakthroughs on a range of contentious issues in the U.S.-Turkish relationship. That didn’t stop Trump from gushing during a joint news conference at the White House that he is “a big fan” and “very big friend” of Erdoğan. In his typical hyperbolic fashion, Trump declared Turkey to be a “great NATO ally and a strategic partner of the United States around the world,” and described their talks as “wonderful and productive.” The attitude on Capitol Hill toward Erdoğan’s visit has been very different. -
Extraterritorial Application of US Sanctions Law US Litigation Today
U.S. Litigation Today: Still a Threat or a Paper Tiger? Extraterritorial Application of U.S. Sanctions Law Prof. Dr. Susan Emmenegger, LL.M. University of Bern, Switzerland The Mysterious Case of Reza Zarrab On January 1, 2013, Turkish officials found 3000 pounds of gold on a cargo-plane from Accra (Ghana) headed to Dubai. They were labeled as "mineral samples". It was the beginning of what came to be known as the "gold for gas scandal". In 2012, US lead international sanctions against Iran prevented Iran from receiving payments in dollars or euro. Turkey had long imported oil and natural gas from Iran. No longer allowed to pay in dollars or euro, the Turks used to Turkish lira to buy gold. The gold was flown from Turkey to Dubai and ferried to Iran across the Gulf. Until July 2013, there were no sanctions against trading precious metals with Iran. By that time, an estimate of $8 billion had been channeled to Iran. Reza Zarrab . Iranian, Azeri, Turkish business man. Friend of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Close ties to former Iranian President Ahmadinejad. Arrested after the cargo-plane incident. The investigation found extensive bribery of Turkish officials, including Erdogan's inner circle. Exonerated in 2014 after the Turkish government removed all persons in charge of the case. Arrested on March 19, 2016 by FBI agents while vacationing at Disney World with his wife and 5 year old daughter. Charged with violating Iran-related U.S. sanctions law. Bail denied. Recep Tayyip Erdogan . Turkish President . Calls Zarrab a philantropist . Requests release of Zarrab; raised the Zarrab iusse with Vice-President Joe Biden in 09/16 and with President Trump on 03/17 Preet Bharara . -
Major Turkish Bank Prosecuted in Unprecedented Iran Sanctions Evasion Case
Major Turkish Bank Prosecuted in Unprecedented Iran Sanctions Evasion Case John P. Caves III IRAN WATCH REPORT Meghan Peri Crimmins March 2020 1 Executive Summary The indictment of Turkish state-owned Halkbank, unsealed late last year, is the first against a major bank for sanctions violations brought by the United States. The case sheds light on how, from 2012 to 2016, in the midst of negotiations on its nuclear program, Iran relied on this bank to launder money in order to relieve the economic pressure of international sanctions. The four- year legal saga began in 2016 with the arrest and prosecution of Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish businessman. Zarrab masterminded a scheme to launder billions of dollars of Iranian oil proceeds through Halkbank under the guise of gold and food trade. Evidence presented during the 2018 trial and conviction of Zarrab’s co-conspirator Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a Turkish national and former deputy general manager of Halkbank, implicated Turkish President Recep Erdogan. The ongoing case against the bank has been a point of contention in already-fraught U.S.-Turkey relations. Due to a series of appeals and postponements, the case remains in legal limbo. However, in as the United States ramps up its pressure campaign against Iran, and Iran ramps up its nuclear program, the case provides lessons learned for how to prevent Iran from exploiting the international financial system to evade sanctions in support of proliferation. Introduction On October 15, 2019, U.S. prosecutors unsealed an unprecedented six-count indictment against Halkbank, a major Turkish state-owned financial institution, charging the bank with fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). -
2016 ILARI Economic Warfare. the Western Way of Warfighting
1 «Economic Warfare» The Western Way of Warfighting by Virgilio IIari Gasoline ration stamps being inspected at the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C., 31 January 1974 It is part of a collection donated to the Library of Congress. Per the deed of gift, U.S. News & World Report dedicated to the public all rights it held for the photographs in this collection upon its donation to the Library. 2 «Economic Warfare» The Western Way of Warfighting by Virgilio IIari A detailed chronological and bibliographical fact-finding of the most relevant treaties, agreements, political decisions, legislation, definitions, theories, public documents and scientific studies in the field of the economic and financial warfare and their tools and tactics [market penetration, trade agreements, international aid (foreign economic as- sistance), preclusive purchasing (buying), dollar diplomacy, monetary policy, world investment banking, shipping assurance, economic and financial intelligence, business intelligence, economy as statecraft, foreign economic policy, geoeconomics, national emergencies, export/import controls, foreign asset control (freeze), proclaimed listing, sanctions and countersanctions, embargos, boycott, lawfare, extraterritorial jurisdic- tion, shipping insurance, predatory pricing, dumping and antidumping, bankrupting, counterfeiting, smuggling, color revolution, human rights, responsibility to protect, blockade, bombing, sabotage, espionage, covert operations] since 1900 ongoing. Contents I Offensive Economic Warfare (1900-1945) p. 3 Phase I – Imperialism (1900-1914) p. 5 Phase II – Great War (1914-1921) p. 11 Phase III – Interwar (1919-1939) p. 19 Phase IV – Second World War (1939-1945) p. 37 II The Economic Weapons of the Cold War (1945-1991) p. 56 Phase I – Containment (1945-1962) p. -
Power and Corruption in Erdoğan's Turkey
November 2017 Power and Corruption in Erdoğan’s Turkey: Context and Consequences By: Blaise Misztal, Nick Danforth, Jessica Michek, and Ryan Gingeras The case of Reza Zarrab and his co-conspirators, who all stand accused of violating U.S. sanctions law, has profound implications for the future of Turkish- American relations. Any conviction or plea agreement reached will represent official confirmation that the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan willfully engaged in systemic corruption for political and economic gain as part of a policy that also undermined NATO alliance goals. Even if federal prosecutors were to abandon the case, there are multiple signs that suggest that Washington’s ability to cooperate with Turkey on certain security matters has been fundamentally compromised. Increasingly, Ankara seems intent on fostering conditions that, either inadvertently or by design, harm the broader regional security architecture that the United States and Turkey once worked together to build. One may look at the Zarrab case as symptomatic of a much larger crisis, one greater than any attempt to impose sanctions on Iran. There are several trends in modern Turkey that suggest that corruption, particularly in matters of economy and commerce, has become an instrument of policy and rule in the hands of Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP). This increasingly corrupt system of government comes after decades of joint U.S.-Turkish efforts to form a strong, working relationship on issues related to cooperative international law enforcement. The consequences of this breakdown are diverse and potentially severe. Turkey’s increasingly subversive posturing on international law and security poses a direct threat to U.S. -
Turkey's Democracy Under Challenge
Testimony by: DAVID L. PHILLIPS Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights TURKEY’S DEMOCRACY UNDER CHALLENGE U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats Rayburn 2172 April 5, 2017 Introduction Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to participate in this Committee's hearing on challenges to democracy in Turkey. There were early warning signs. In 1998, Tayyip Edogan made a public speech: The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets, and the faithful our soldiers. A court sentenced Erdogan to a ten-month prison term for “inciting hatred based on religious differences.” After the 2002 elections, Erdogan said: “Democracy is like a street car. You get off when you reach your destination.” When this committee held similar hearings last May, it was apparent that democracy was backsliding in Turkey. As I will report today, this trend has intensified. My analysis will address: • Islamism; • Corruption; • Freedom of Expression and Assembly; • Freedom of the Press; • Terror Ties; • Relations with the EU and NATO; and, • Minority rights (Kurds, Armenians, and Greeks) Turkey is called as a secular democracy. Turkey is neither secular nor a democracy. If the referendum passes on April 16, formalizing anti-democratic governance, the date will mark the death of Turkey’s nascent democracy. Turkey is heralded for its NATO membership. But NATO is more than a security alliance. It is a coalition of countries with shared values. Turkey under Tayyip Erdogan is an uncertain ally. -
A Timeline of the Graft Investigation and the Government's Response
Turkey’s December 17 Process: A Timeline of the Graft Investigation and the Government’s Response Compiled by Hendrik Müller Turkey’s December 17 Process: A Timeline of the Graft Investigation and the Government’s Response Compiled by Hendrik Müller © Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program – A Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center Johns Hopkins University-SAIS, 1619 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20036 Institute for Security and Development Policy, V. Finnbodavägen 2, Stockholm-Nacka 13130, Sweden www.silkroadstudies.org “Turkey’s December 17 Process: A Timeline of the Graft Investigation and the Government’s Response” is published by the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and the Silk Road Studies Program. The Joint Center is a transatlantic independent and non-profit research and policy center. It has offices in Washington and Stockholm and is affiliated with the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University and the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy. It is the first institution of its kind in Europe and North America, and is firmly established as a leading research and policy center, serving a large and diverse community of analysts, scholars, policy- watchers, business leaders, and journalists. The Joint Center is at the forefront of research on issues of conflict, security, and development in the region. Through its applied research, publications, research cooperation, public lectures, and seminars, it functions as a focal point for academic, policy, and public discussion regarding the region. The opinions and conclusions expressed in this study are those of the author only, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Joint Center or its sponsors.