Court: Turkish Halkbank to be charged in Iran sanctions case

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court says a Turkish bank must face criminal charges that it evaded sanctions against Iran by processing billions of dollars of Iranian oil revenue. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday. It upheld a decision by District Judge Richard M. Berman. An indictment said the bank illegally moved about $20 billion in Iranian oil and gas revenues. It also said the state-owned bank sometimes disguised money movements as purchases of food and medicine so they’d qualify for a “humanitarian exception” to sanctions. A lawyer for Halkbank declined to comment on the ruling.