İsmail Saymaz announces: Reza Zarrab's father has died in Istanbul
It has been learned that Hüseyin Zarrab, the father of Reza Zarrab—who was released following a plea deal after being arrested in the U.S. on money laundering charges—has passed away. The news was announced by Sözcü columnist İsmail Saymaz.
Sözcü columnist İsmail Saymaz wrote that Hüseyin Zarrab, the father of Reza Zarrab—a figure whose name became synonymous with bribery and corruption in Turkey, and who was arrested in the U.S. on March 22, 2016, on money laundering charges before being released following a plea deal—passed away last Saturday in an Istanbul hospital where he had been receiving treatment for some time.
"HE DIED WITHOUT PAYING THE PENALTY"
Saymaz wrote, “Once considered one of the most powerful men in Iran and a friend of former Iranian President Ahmadinejad, Hüseyin Zarrab was a jeweler in the Grand Bazaar. He was the key element of the shadow economy based on gold trade that Iran established to bypass sanctions. Zarrab had agreed to become a cooperating witness by reaching a deal with the prosecutor in the court where his son was being tried as a defendant in the U.S. He had reduced the penalty imposed for bypassing economic sanctions through his currency exchange office in Dubai by 70 percent. However, he died without paying the penalty.”