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[tw0122]

Charges against the Turkish Halkbank announced by federal prosecutors has critics of US President Donald Trump hopeful of his impeachment, due to reports he tried to intervene on behalf of one of its convicted executives.

Halkbank – officially Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS – was charged on Tuesday with six counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering in the Southern District of New York, for allegedly helping Iran circumvent US sanctions on oil exports between 2012 and 2016 to the tune of $20 billion. The Turkish government is the bank’s majority shareholder, and US Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman claimed that its “audacious conduct was supported and protected by high-ranking Turkish government officials.”

Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani reportedly represented Reza Zarrab, one of the Halkbank executives who was charged with seven counts in relation to Iranian money-laundering and pleaded guilty in October 2017.

Citing three anonymous sources, Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Trump tried to pressure then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to persuade the DOJ to drop the case against Zarrab, but Tillerson refused. This was supposedly done on behalf of Giuliani, who went on to become Trump’s personal attorney in April 2018 and represent him in the ‘Russiagate’ investigation that eventually turned up empty.