A court decided a 90-day postponement in the trial of a shady Turkish businessman who was charged with fraud in the US after the defense lawyers filed thousands of documents which they say negate allegations, VOA Turkish reported.
At the hearing on Monday in Salt Lake City, Utah, the lawyers of Sezgin Baran Korkmaz, who is accused of laundering more than $133 million in fraud proceeds through bank accounts that he controlled in Turkey and Luxembourg, said they needed time for the examination of over 16 thousand documents they had.
Judge Jared Bennett accepted the defense’s request and ordered a new hearing on 17 January.
At the first hearing, Judge Bennett ruled that Korkmaz did not comply with any of the conditions for release pending trial.
Korkmaz was arrested in Austria last year after the US justice department’s request, following the unsealing of a superseding indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction of an official proceeding.
U.S. prosecutors say the fraud proceeds stemmed from a scheme involving the filing of false claims for more than $1 billion in renewable fuel tax credits for the production and sale of biodiesel by Utah-based Washakie Renewable Energy LLC.
Kormaz will be sentenced to 20 years in prison for each of the charges if convicted at the end of the trial.
Source:gerceknews
