The US Department of Justice has moved to dismiss criminal charges against Türkiye Halk Bankası, better known as Halkbank, after the Turkish state-owned lender completed a deferred prosecution agreement reached in March 2026. The bank was originally indicted in October 2019 for allegedly helping Iran move roughly $20 billion through the US financial system in violation of sanctions.

Halkbank paid no fines. It admitted no wrongdoing. Its shares jumped somewhere between 4% and 10% on the news. For context, when BNP Paribas settled its own Iran sanctions case, it paid nearly $9 billion.

Seven years, zero penalties

The original indictment accused Halkbank of conspiracy to evade Iran sanctions, money laundering, and bank fraud. The alleged scheme involved front companies and misleading statements to move Iranian funds through channels that were supposed to be locked down by US sanctions.

The case wound its way through the US court system for years, including a trip to the Supreme Court. That ruling was actually significant: the justices affirmed that state-owned entities are not immune from criminal prosecution under US law.

In March 2026, the DOJ and Halkbank reached a deferred prosecution agreement. Ernst & Young conducted a compliance review and found no issues with the bank’s sanctions and anti-money laundering measures. Around June 10-11, 2026, the DOJ formally moved to dismiss the charges with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled.

Court approval is expected to follow shortly.

The political backlash

The resolution has drawn sharp criticism from some US lawmakers. Their complaint is straightforward: a bank accused of facilitating $20 billion in sanctions evasion is walking away without paying a cent, while previous cases established a clear precedent of massive financial penalties.

The BNP Paribas comparison is the obvious one. The French bank paid nearly $9 billion in 2014 for violating US sanctions against Sudan, Cuba, and Iran. Standard Chartered, HSBC, and other major financial institutions have also paid billions in sanctions-related settlements over the past decade. Halkbank’s zero-penalty outcome stands in stark contrast.

What this means for crypto and sanctions compliance

The DOJ has been increasingly aggressive about applying these frameworks to crypto entities, pursuing cases against mixing services and exchanges that allegedly facilitated sanctioned transactions. Tornado Cash’s developers faced criminal charges over allegations involving sanctioned funds that represented a fraction of Halkbank’s alleged volume.