[custom_adv] Reza Zarrab (born 12 September 1983) is a businessman based in Turkey. He has , and Macedonian citizenship. [custom_adv] In March 2016, he was arrested in the United States, accused of being a member of an international criminal organization. He was charged with evading US economic sanctions on and money laundering in an alleged racket scheme to help Iran bypass the sanctions, involving ministers of the Turkish government of then prime minister and now president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. [custom_adv] His father, Hossein Zarrab, had a close relationship with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,[9] who was the President of Iran from 2005 to 2013. The US Department of Treasury accused Hossein Zarrab of violating US sanctions on Iran, and fined him a $9.1 million, reduced to $2.3 million following his cooperation with US officials. [custom_adv] Zarrab was arrested by the FBI in Miami in March 2016 and accused of bank fraud, money laundering and helping the government in evading the US economic sanctions. His charges; conspiracy to defraud, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, money laundering, and bank fraud; could bring up to 70 years in prison if found guilty in the US Federal Court. [custom_adv] Zarrab was arrested in Miami, Florida, for conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran (by using his gold business to help government evade the sanctions), money laundering and bank fraud. He was later indicted by a grand jury with charges that could bring up to 75 years in prison. [custom_adv] During the case, prosecutors have noted that Zarrab donated $4.5 million to a charity founded by Emine Erdoğan, the wife of former prime minister and now president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Prosecutors stated that Zarrab has "close ties" to Erdoğan. [custom_adv] After Zarrab's arrest, shares in Halkbank, whose CEO was among those charged with taking bribes from Zarrab, had fallen by 20%. He has offered to pay $50 million to be granted a bail.[8] Bail has been denied. In their brief against granting bail, prosecutors had argued that "if the defendant were able to reach Turkish soil, he could cause the highest levels of Turkish government to block his return to the United States."