The Trump administration has reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Halkbank, the Turkish state-owned lender indicted in 2019 for one of the largest sanctions-evasion schemes in modern history. It allows the bank to avoid prosecution despite processing billions of dollars in illicit Iranian transactions.
FDD Action’s Tyler Stapleton, along with FDD’s Sinan Ciddi and Max Meizlish, argue a lenient outcome undermines U.S. sanctions enforcement, erodes deterrence, and rewards Ankara’s defiance at the expense of American credibility. With another Turkish bank, Kuveyt Türk, facing separate litigation over alleged Hamas financing through U.S. correspondent accounts, the authors call on the Treasury and Justice Departments to use their full legal authority to ensure no institution can exploit the American financial system to fund terrorism.