Turkish money launderer’s arrest could bring Erdogan under spotlight

PanARMENIAN.Net - A Turkish gold trader at the centre of a corruption scandal that engulfed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been arrested in Miami and charged with laundering millions of dollars, the Independent reports.

Reza Zarrab, also known by the name Riza Sarraf, was accused in 2013 of bribing senior ministers from Turkey’s ruling party with cash and lavish gifts as part of a scheme to bypass U.S. sanctions on Iran.

On Saturday, March 19 the 33-year-old was publicly arrested in Florida when U.S. prosecutors charged him with fraud, money-laundering and sanctions-busting.

The arrest threatens to reopen a case that reached right into Erdogan’s inner circle and to tarnish the party that he founded. It will also deepen existing tensions between Turkey and the United States, the Independent says.

Zarrab, an Iranian-born Turkish citizen, was detained and charged in Istanbul in 2013 in a huge corruption case that posed the biggest challenge to Erdogan.

The allegations centered on a claim that Zarrab was using a loophole in U.S. sanctions on Iran to buy oil and gas in exchange for gold. The businessman, according to the Independent, was accused of bribing senior ministers in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in order to facilitate the transfers.