⁍ Halkbank on Monday urged the dismissal of a U.S. indictment accusing the state-owned Turkish lender of helping Iran evade American sanctions.

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⁍ U.S. prosecutors have accused Halkbank of using money servicers and front companies in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to evade sanctions.

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⁍ Halkbank pleaded not guilty on March 31 to bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy charges.

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– A Turkish state-owned bank accused by US prosecutors of helping Iran evade American sanctions is asking a New York court to dismiss the charges. Halkbank, which has pleaded not guilty to bank fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy charges, says it is immune from prosecution under principles of sovereign immunity and that US laws do not cover its alleged misconduct, reports Reuters. Prosecutors have accused the bank of using money servicers and front companies in Iran, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates to evade sanctions, enabling revenue from oil and gas sales to be spent on gold, and facilitate sham food and medicine purchases. In a Manhattan court filing, Halkbank said its status as an ‘instrumentality’ of Turkey shielded it from prosecution under principles of sovereign immunity. Halkbank also said there is a ‘strong presumption’ against applying US criminal laws, such as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act it was accused of violating, to conduct outside the United States. The bank said its only domestic connection was its alleged processing of transactions through domestic banks, but these were ‘peripheral’ to the broader criminal case. US District Judge Richard Berman, who oversees the case, also presided over the January 2018 conviction of former Halkbank executive Mehmet Hakan Atilla and a related guilty plea by Reza Zarrab, a wealthy Turkish-Iranian gold trader. Last month, Halkbank asked Berman to recuse himself because of possible bias.