Bloomberg:

Turkey’s prime minister personally ordered the resumption of a scheme to launder billions of dollars in Iranian oil revenue and circumvent U.S. sanctions in 2014 after an investigation into the matter was quashed, a government witness testified at a New York trial.

The witness, gold and currency dealer Reza Zarrab, didn’t specify who was prime minister, though he appeared to be referring to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who occupied the office until late August of 2014 when he became president. Zarrab was testifying about a series of text messages between himself and his lawyer that took place in June of that year. Zarrab’s testimony has previously implicated Erdogan.

Zarrab said on the witness stand Thursday that he learned from his Turkish lawyer that the prime minister ordered the restart of the operation after Zarrab encountered resistance to it at Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS, a large Turkish state-owned bank that was central to the operation. Zarrab also said Erdogan’s son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, who is now Turkey’s energy minister, also supported the plan.

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