Lawyers for a shady Turkish businessman — whose prosecution in Manhattan made US Attorney Preet Bharara something of an international celebrity — want the charges against him dropped, saying authorities overstepped their bounds.
Two of Reza Zarrab’s squad of 15 attorneys argued in Manhattan federal court Wednesday that the US sanction violations he’s charged with shouldn’t apply because his client doesn’t live in America.
“The sanction laws are designed to operate on US citizens and transactions that are from the United States,” said attorney Paul Clement during a roughly two-hour hearing.
The charges against Zarrab, 34, who is accused of helping the Iranian government and other entities there evade US sanctions by processing financial transactions, skyrocketed Bharara into Twitter stardom with hundreds of thousands of new, mostly Turkish followers.
Manhattan’s top prosecutor was even lauded by Turkish-born NBA star Enes Kanter, who wore an Oklahoma City Thunder jersey outfitted with “Bharara” on the back and then posted it to Twitter.
Proud of your good work. Keep it up !!
Bharara The Justice Hunter @PreetBharara pic.twitter.com/uHpGt1nJLH— Enes Kanter (@Enes_Kanter) March 23, 2016
Zarrab’s defense team, which includes New York lawyer Benjamin Brafman, wants Judge Richard Berman to dismiss the charges, as well as suppress cell phone evidence and statements he made while in custody.
They claim feds illegally searched Zarrab’s iPhone and questioned him before giving him his Miranda rights.
Prosecutors argued that Zarrab’s alleged scheme involved passing money through US banks and that he intentionally “stripped” financial documents of Iran-related information in order to shirk sanctions.
Berman will rule at a later date.
Zarrab, who has been in custody since his arrest in March, is scheduled to begin trial in January.