Skip to main content

US sanctions-busting trial fails to shock Turkish markets

Turkey’s financial markets remained relatively calm in the face of bribery confessions and other allegations targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
RTS1GBOO.jpg
Read in 

The sanctions-busting case in the United States involving prominent Turkish suspects is being followed daily, like a nail-biting TV series, by many at home and abroad. A bribery scandal, which Turkey had covered up in December 2013, is back in the open, this time in New York and through the confessions of Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who says he paid kickbacks to Turkish politicians and bankers while he ran an elaborate scheme to evade US sanctions on Iran.

Last week, Zarrab’s confessions appeared to also implicate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was prime minister at the time. This coincided with the main opposition Republican People’s Party exposing alleged offshore accounts of people from Erdogan’s inner circle, involving sums that are hard to explain.

Access the Middle East news and analysis you can trust

Join our community of Middle East readers to experience all of Al-Monitor, including 24/7 news, analyses, memos, reports and newsletters.

Subscribe

Only $100 per year.