Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. v. United States
Headline: Court allows criminal prosecution of a state-owned bank, rules federal criminal jurisdiction applies and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act does not bar such prosecutions, affecting state-owned companies facing U.S. charges.
Holding: The Court held that federal district courts have jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. §3231 to prosecute a foreign-state-owned bank and that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act does not bar criminal prosecution of such instrumentalities.
- Allows U.S. prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against state-owned companies.
- Limits the FSIA’s application to civil cases, not criminal prosecutions.
- Leaves common-law immunity questions open on remand for lower courts.
Summary
Background
A bank whose shares are majority owned by the Republic of Turkey was indicted in New York for a multi-year scheme to evade U.S. economic sanctions on Iran and to launder proceeds through the U.S. financial system. The bank asked the trial court to dismiss the indictment, saying a law about foreign-state immunity (the FSIA) protects state-owned entities from prosecution. The District Court denied that claim, and the Second Circuit affirmed in part before this Court took the case.
Reasoning
The Court addressed two main questions: whether federal criminal courts have power to try the bank, and whether the FSIA bars criminal prosecutions of foreign-state-owned entities. The Justices held that the general criminal statute, 18 U.S.C. §3231, gives district courts jurisdiction over “all offenses” and therefore covers prosecutions of a foreign-state-owned bank. The Court also concluded the FSIA is a detailed statute that governs civil cases and does not grant immunity from criminal prosecution. The decision affirmed jurisdiction and rejected the FSIA defense as applicable to criminal cases.
Real world impact
The ruling means U.S. prosecutors may proceed with criminal charges against state-owned companies under the general federal criminal jurisdiction statute, subject to other defenses. The Court did not finally decide common-law immunity questions and sent those issues back to the appeals court, so additional legal arguments may still affect the case’s outcome.
Dissents or concurrances
A separate opinion said the FSIA should govern immunity questions in criminal cases too and criticized sending the common-law immunity issues back to the lower court for further work.
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