Reza Zarrab, a businessman who admitted conspiring with a Turkish bank to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions by trading its oil for gold will not spend any more time behind bars in a case that strained relations between the U.S. and Turkey.
U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman said at a hearing Tuesday he plans to sentence Zarrab to time already served. Prosecutors credited Zarrab with providing “truthful, complete and reliable” assistance to American investigators, including testifying that he paid millions of dollars in bribes to officials in Turkey to facilitate the sanctions-busting scheme.
