A lawyer for a Turkish bank accused by the U.S. of aiding an Iranian scheme to evade economic sanctions appeared in a New York courtroom for the first time on Tuesday and said the bank continued to dispute the U.S.’s legal authority over it and planned to seek dismissal of the case. The state-owned bank, known as Halkbank, has so far refused to accept a U.S. legal summons or other court papers, and hasn’t entered a plea to charges filed against it last month. The American lawyer for the bank, Andrew Hruska of King & Spalding, is seeking permission for a “special appearance” to seek dismissal of the case without the bank first having to formally accept and answer the charges.

ADAM KLASFELD - courthousenews.com - MANHATTAN (CN) — The major players behind the 2008 global financial crisis may be free, but a Turkish bank manager’s prosecution for facilitating billions in illicit trades with Iran proves that the financial sector isn’t “too big to jail,” a U.S. prosecutor said on Tuesday. Facing the possibility of decades behind bars, Turkish national Mehmet Hakan Atilla has vigorously maintained his innocence throughout two days of cross-examination about his work at Turkey’s state-run Halkbank, the nation’s sixth largest bank. Directly after leaving the witness stand, Atilla jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire of a prosecutor’s heated summation. Defense attorneys have depicted Atilla as one of 13 managers who improbably found himself at the center of a geopolitical drama.