Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank asked the US Supreme Court to consider tossing out criminal charges accusing the bank of helping Iran evade economic sanctions.
In an appeal docketed at the high court Wednesday, Halkbank contended it is protected from prosecution by sovereign immunity. The filing follows a federal appeals court ruling in October rejecting Halkbank’s arguments.
Prosecutors allege that Halkbank helped free up $20 billion of restricted Iranian funds and helped launder at least $1 billion through the US financial system.
The appeal centers on an issue the Supreme Court left open in 2023, when it said Halkbank wasn’t protected by a 1976 federal statute that confers immunity on foreign governments in many circumstances. The high court said that law applies only to civil lawsuits, not criminal prosecutions.
The bank now contends it is immune under what is known as “common law,” the judge-made set of legal rules that sometimes apply when no statute governs.
“No court in history has ever criminally tried the instrumentality of another co-equal sovereign — even in cases involving commercial conduct,” Halkbank argued in its appeal.
Halkbank’s appeal is an “uphill climb unlikely to succeed,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Elliott Stein said in April. He said the bank’s best bet is likely to be a settlement with the Trump administration at a potential cost of $1 billion to $2 billion.
Depending on how quickly the Justice Department files a brief in response, the high court might not say whether it will hear the appeal until its new term starts in October.
The case is Turkiye Halk Bankasi v. United States, 24-1144.
With assistance from Bob Van Voris.
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