Halkbank in clear in Turkish banker Atilla case in US

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's Halkbank on Thursday said it continues to adhere to all national and international regulations as it clarified that a U.S. court's verdict involving its former employee was not a ruling on the bank itself.

On Wednesday, a jury in New York found former Halkbank deputy chief executive officer Mehmet Hakan Atilla guilty on five counts related to conspiracy and bank fraud but acquitted him of a money laundering charge.

The verdict by a panel of six men and six women against the 47-year-old banker came after more than three weeks of testimonies and four days of deliberation.

The counts on which Atilla was declared guilty included violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran, crimes to deceive the U.S. and defrauding U.S. banks.

In its statement to Turkey's Public Disclosure Platform (KAP), Halkbank said: "As a matter of fact, neither has our bank been a party to the case nor is there administrative or financial decision taken against our bank by the court.

The bank underlined that Halkbank always adheres to national and international regulations in all its business and transactions, and also puts utmost effort to improve its compliance policy further within the framework of international standards.

"We would like to remind that to make news which discredit our bank and damage its reputation based on the decision of the jury regarding our deputy general manager about the judicial process which is not yet concluded would be against the principles of the article titled ‘Protection of Reputation’ of the Banking Law," it said.

"No mechanism, method or system other than those in the existing regulations and those known to and followed by all other banks in foreign trade practices have been used by our bank when offering banking services."

Halkbank added that foreign trade transactions and money transfers are carried out in an open and transparent manner which can be monitored by the related authorities on the system.

"Our bank is always going to maintain its policy of transparency in the transactions and compliance to international regulations decisively," it said.

Earlier Thursday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry also slammed the decision and termed it a “judicial shame”.