No Cushy Digs for Turkish Gold Trader Who Helped Convict Banker

EghtesadOnline: When gold trader Reza Zarrab was taken from a U.S. jail after agreeing to testify about Turkish efforts to help Iranian sanctions evasion, speculation flourished about the luxe confines he might have found himself in.

News ID: ۷۴۴۷۱۸

27 January 2018

Given his resources, the thinking went, he could have been put up at a luxury hotel or apartment building during the trial, and with his cooperation agreement -- under which authorities said he could request witness protection -- he might never have to see the inside of a jail cell again. Would there be daily fresh flower service?

Well, ahem. It turns out he wasn’t in a bungalow in sunny San Diego. A former fellow inmate who is suing Zarrab for assault managed to track him down -- in Westchester County Jail. An affidavit of service filed in the case said Zarrab was served with a summons at the jail’s address on Jan. 19.

According to Bloomberg, prosecutors in the Turkish case declined to say at the time where Zarrab was being held. They said he had been removed to protect him from threats. Whether he’s still there isn’t clear. The system’s inmate locator said it had no record of a Reza Zarrab on Friday afternoon. The U.S. attorney’s office and Zarrab’s lawyer declined to comment.