Iranian court delivers death sentence to Billionaire Babak Zanjani

Iranian court delivers death sentence to Billionaire Babak Zanjani. (TAZ)

An Iranian court has delivered a death sentence formerly issued for billionaire Babak Zanjani.

Zanjani’s lawyer Rasoul Koohpaye Zadeh said he received the sentence from Revolution Court Branch 15, ILNA news agency reported April 4.

“The delivery process has in fact begun today as the verdict comes in 318 pages and we should start taking notes, which takes time. When we are done taking notes, the verdict is considered as delivered, since which day we will have 20 days to plea,” the lawyer added.

A ruling announced March 6 convicted Zanjani and sentenced him to death, according to the Islamic juristic laws.

In December 2013, Iranian judiciary officials accused Zanjani of massive fraud at the Oil Ministry and money laundering. He has been kept in custody and attended court hearing sessions since then.

After sanctions were imposed against the National Iranian Oil Company, Iran had to partially export its oil through Zanjani's channels. Meanwhile, the ministry said Zanjani still owes more than two billion euros for the oil exports he handled on behalf of the former government.

An Iranian-Turkish wealthy businessman, Reza Zarab who is in the center of a major financial scandal in Turkey, revealed that his leader, billionaire Babak Zanjani, led a money laundering operation in Turkey.

Zanjani was involved in the sales of gold by Turkey to Iran, a case that has sparked an extensive investigation for corruption in Turkey.

The state-run IRNA news agency reported on January 3 that according to the information broadcast on the Turkish public television: "Reza Zarab has confirmed that Babak Zanjani was its director."

Babak Zanjani was arrested last week in Iran, as a consequence of a financial scandal in connection with the illegal activities of the mullahs in Turkey that has shaken that country.

According to a Turkish television, Zanjani and Zarab worked for transferring at least a planeload of gold bars from Istanbul airport to Dubai.

Persian language Ayandeh website reported on January 2 that "the latest information on the record indicates that the Iranian banking mafia has received a bribe of €4 billion for laundering operation" for a sum of $ 87 billion.

Related: US prosecutors charge Turkish 'Gold Trader' Zarrab at Heart of Turkey Graft Scandal.

US prosecutors charge Turkish 'Gold Trader' Zarrab at Heart of Turkey Graft Scandal.

U.S. Attorney Announces Arrest Of Turkish National For Conspiring To Evade U.S. Sanctions Against Iran, Money Laundering, And Bank Fraud . (Bloomberg)

#Turkey president #Erdogan personally vouched for the US-indicted Reza Zarrab, saying he has known him as a philanthropist

— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) March 22, 2016

#Zarrab financed TOGEMDER, led by Saadet Gülbaran, the wife of first lady Emine #Erdogan's brother. First lady was among TOGEMDER's founders

— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) March 22, 2016

Reza Zarrab, a gold trader at the center of a bribery scandal that engulfed Turkey’s leadership more than two years ago, was charged by the U.S. of running a scheme to help the Iranian government launder hundreds of millions of dollars and evade economic sanctions.

Zarrab, 33, owner and operator of Royal Holding A.S., and two others, are accused of using a web of companies over five years to induce U.S. banks to unwittingly process transactions that violated international sanctions against Iran, according to an indictment unsealed on Monday.

The charges are a blow to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has repeatedly insisted that allegations of corruption against him and his inner circle were nothing more than a coup attempt.

In response to the scandal centered around Zarrab in 2013, Erdogan turned Turkey’s bureaucracy upside-down, dismissing thousands of state employees, police officers and prosecutors, with many jailed. He also labeled a group of former allies he blamed for the accusations, the Gulen religious movement, a terrorist organization.

Zarrab had denied any wrongdoing amid the Turkish investigation, saying the business was legitimate. The ministers also denied the charges. All charges against him and members of Erdogan’s government were eventually dropped.

The U.S. indictment suggests “that the allegations of sanctions-busting were strong enough to merit U.S. action, regardless of the political consequences," said Aaron Stein, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Hariri Center for the Middle East and author of the book "Turkey’s New Foreign Policy."

This "is a big deal because of Zarrab’s obvious connections to the AKP," he said, referring to the party Erdogan founded, which has governed Turkey since 2002.

Not mentioned in the U.S. indictment is Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS, the Turkish state-run bank that processed Zarrab’s payments and whose former chief executive officer, Suleyman Aslan, was also embroiled in the scandal and briefly jailed. Police found millions of dollars stuffed into shoe boxes when they raided Aslan’s home in Dec. 2013. He said the money was donations he was collecting for Islamic schools in Turkey and Macedonia.

In a television interview on Turkey’s ultra pro-government A Haber news in April 2014, Zarrab estimated he had facilitated the transfer of about $12 billion in gold, or about 200 tons, to Iran. The surge in exports driven by that business was so rapid and so extensive -- gold transfers to Iran jumped from $53 million in 2011 to $6.5 billion in 2012 -- that it distorted Turkish trade figures. Read the full story here. Hmmm......Don't worry Obama will protect his 'brother' Erdogan.The indictment can be read here.