Reza
Zarrab, the government’s star witness in the trial of a Turkish banker
accused of violating United States sanctions on Iran, was recorded in a
2016 jailhouse phone call saying that one needed to lie “in America in
order to make it out of prison,” according to a summary of the
conversation released on Monday.
“Reza
says in such a country, in order to get out or get a reduced sentence,
you need to admit to crimes you haven’t committed,” the summary says.
The
summary was contained in a public court filing by lawyers for the
Turkish banker, Mehmet Hakan Atilla. It was part of a letter to the
judge in which the lawyers complained that prosecutors had withheld
summaries of five audio recordings and other potentially critical
evidence for several days past a deadline the judge had set.
Mr.
Zarrab’s statements, the defense lawyers argued, showed him
“proclaiming his willingness to fabricate testimony out of whole cloth
in order to obtain a reduced sentence.”
The
two-page document summarizing the conversations, which is stamped
“Subject to Protective Order,” was apparently filed publicly by mistake,
and it was soon removed from the public docket.
It was not until last week that prosecutors revealed that Mr. Zarrab, 34, had pleaded guilty
on Oct. 26 in a secret court hearing and became a cooperating
government witness in the sanctions case. On Wednesday, asked why he had
decided to assist the government, Mr. Zarrab testified during the trial, “Cooperation was the fastest way to accept responsibility and to get out of jail at once.”
The
defense’s legal filing came on the fourth day of testimony by Mr.
Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader who pleaded guilty to helping
orchestrate a billion-dollar oil-for-gold scheme in violation of the
sanctions. Last week, he testified that in 2012, he paid tens of
millions of dollars in bribes to Turkey’s then-foreign minister, Zafer
Caglayan, to help with the scheme.
Mr.
Zarrab also testified at the trial in Federal District Court in
Manhattan that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then Turkey’s prime minister and
now its president, personally ordered that two Turkish banks be allowed
to participate in the scheme.
On
Monday, Mr. Zarrab testified that he paid bribes to obtain his release
after being arrested in December 2013 in an investigation by the Turkish
police, and that he soon restarted his sanctions-busting activities.
Jurors
in the New York case have been told that corrupt Turkish officials shut
down the investigation and organized a purge of the police and
prosecutors who ran it. They were also told that Mr. Zarrab had put up
bribe money for judges, “so that everything could be made to go away.”
In
Turkey, officials remained defiant over the weekend in their attitude
toward the case, which has the country abuzz over the allegations of
huge bribes and political influence. In a speech to supporters on
Saturday, President Erdogan denounced the United States court and
repeated accusations that members of the Fethullah Gulen movement, often
referred to as FETO, had fabricated the evidence.
“Fake,
unreal courts cannot sentence my country,” he told a local party
congress in the eastern city of Kars. “Fake, unreal courts constituted
with fictitious representatives of the so-called vile FETO can never
sentence my country. We serve, others smear.”
Turkey’s
foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, followed suit, repeating
allegations that followers of Mr. Gulen had infiltrated American
diplomatic missions in Turkey and even institutions in the United
States. “We tell Americans, to their face: We know how FETO infiltrated
American institutions and judiciary,” he said at a groundbreaking for a
cultural center in Antalya.
The
Turkish financial police continued actions to seize the assets of Mr.
Zarrab and 22 others connected to him. Turkish newspapers published a
list of assets seized from Mr. Zarrab, showing that he owned real estate
valued at close to 300 million lira, or about $75 million, and a
private jet worth $12 million. Three of his employees were detained and
charged with “providing documents” to the United States court.
The
conversation in which Mr. Zarrab was quoted saying that one needed to
lie to get out of prison took place on Sept. 15, 2016, the summary says.
That was six months after his arrest and more than a year before he
pleaded guilty.
In
their letter to Judge Richard M. Berman, Mr. Atilla’s lawyers said due
process required that prosecutors disclose evidence that is exculpatory
or could be used to help impeach a government witness “in sufficient
time to permit the defendant to make effective use of that information
at trial.”
Robert
J. Anello, a lawyer for Mr. Zarrab, said in an emailed comment on
Monday, “Mr. Zarrab understands his obligation to provide fully truthful
testimony.” The United States attorney’s office in Manhattan declined
to comment, as did a lawyer for Mr. Atilla.
Two
other conversations summarized in the court filing appear to touch on
Mr. Zarrab’s efforts to resolve his case through diplomatic or political
means.
The
summary of an Oct. 20, 2016, conversation quotes Mr. Zarrab as being
told, “six people will be exchanged for four people.” It adds, “Don’t
worry they will release/exchange you, too.”
In
a Nov. 4, 2016, call, an unidentified male speaker was recorded telling
Mr. Zarrab that his Turkish lawyer had already talked to “Mevlut and
Bekir” — apparently references to Foreign Minister Cavusoglu and the
justice minister then, Bekir Bozdag — and that the lawyer would talk to
“Beyefendi,” an apparent reference to Mr. Erdogan.
The
male speaker suggests that “Beyefendi” might call President Barack
Obama. In 2016, Mr. Erdogan raised Mr. Zarrab’s case with Vice President
Joseph R. Biden Jr. during talks at the United Nations, according to
Turkish news reports. He did so again with President Trump this past
September.
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