Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-1450_5468.pdf
Page Number: 5.0

2 

TURKIYE HALK BANKASI A. S. v. UNITED STATES 

Opinion of the Court 

I 
Halkbank is a bank whose shares are majority-owned by
the  Turkish  Wealth  Fund,  which  in  turn  is  part  of  and 
owned  by  the  Republic  of  Turkey.  In  2019,  the  United 
States  indicted  Halkbank  for  a  multi-year  conspiracy  to 
evade economic sanctions imposed by the United States on 
Iran.  The  indictment  alleged  that  Halkbank,  with  the 
assistance  of  high-ranking  Turkish  government  officials, 
laundered billions of dollars of Iranian oil and gas proceeds 
through  the  global  financial  system,  including  the  U. S.
financial  system,  in  violation  of  U. S.  sanctions  and 
numerous federal statutes.  The indictment further claimed 
that Halkbank made false statements to the U. S. Treasury 
Department  in  an  effort  to  conceal  the  scheme.    Two 
individual  defendants,  including  a  former  Halkbank 
executive, have already been convicted in federal court for
their roles in the alleged conspiracy.  According to the U. S. 
Government,  several  other  indicted  defendants,  including 
Halkbank’s former general manager and its former head of 
foreign operations, remain at large. 

Halkbank moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground
that an instrumentality of a foreign state such as Halkbank 
is  immune  from  criminal  prosecution  under  the  Foreign
Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, 28 U. S. C. §§1330, 1602 
et seq.  The U. S. District Court for the Southern District of 
New  York  denied  the  motion,  reasoning  in  relevant  part 
that  the  FSIA  “does  not  appear  to  grant  immunity  in 
criminal proceedings.”  App. to Pet. for Cert. 25a, 34a.

Halkbank  filed  an  interlocutory  appeal,  and  the  U. S.
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed.  16 F. 4th 
336 (2021).  The Court of Appeals first determined that the 
District  Court  has  subject  matter  jurisdiction  over  this
criminal  prosecution  under  18  U. S. C.  §3231.    As  to  the 
FSIA, the Court of Appeals assumed without deciding that 
the  FSIA  confers  immunity  in  criminal  proceedings  to 
foreign states and their instrumentalities, but held that in