WILL IRAN OIL SANCTIONS EVASION CASE BE POSTPONED AGAIN ?

Defendants Reza Zarrab and Mehmet Atilla

The trial judge in the landmark Reza Zarrab oil-for-gold Iran oil sanctions evasion case, pending in US District Court in Manhattan, has set a status conference i the case for  September 27, 2017. The case is set for trial on October 30, and it was rescheduled from a previous December, 2016 date. Will the Court reset the trial date again ? The recent filing of a Superseding Indictment, naming additional parties defendant, and pending defense discovery issues raised, regarding adequate time to conduct the same before trial, may result in a new trial date.

PM Roosevelt Skerrit and Alireza Monfared

If that occurs, there may be additional defendants named, as there are a number of individuals who certainly must be nervously following the conduct of the trial, especially the filing of the Superseding Indictment. Zarrab's Iranian partners, additional Turkish bankers and businessmen, as well as certain individuals who moved Iran's oil profits, and who sold passports to some of the scheme players, rightly fear that they may, belatedly, become part of what has become a massive case, most likely intended by the US Government to demonstrate the extraterritorial jurisdiction of American sanctions against Iran.

Babak Zanjani