Zarrab declines to seek bail, will be transferred to New York

WASHINGTON

Reza Zarrab, the controversial Turkish-Iranian businessman who was arrested in the U.S. last month on charges that he and others conspired to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars in financial transactions for the Iranian government or other entities to evade U.S. sanctions, waived a right to a bond hearing in Miami, Florida.

U.S. Judge Edwin Torres accepted a petition by Zarrab”s lawyer Lee Stapleton, who withdrew from a bail hearing and the court ruled on canceling the April 4 session. Zarrab will now be sent to New York but no exact date for his first hearing has been marked.

“Reza Zarrab declines to seek bail in Florida court, to be transported to New York for further proceedings,” said New York prosecutor Preet Bharara, who presented the indictment about Zarrab, in a tweet.

He also shared a copy of Judge Torres’ decision.

Reza Zarrab, 33, was charged in an indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan along with one of his employees, Kamelia Jamshidy, and Hossein Najafzadeh, a senior officer at a unit of Bank Mellat in Iran.

Zarrab was detained on March 19 in Miami and appeared in federal court there on March 21, where a federal magistrate judge ordered him arrested. Both Jamshidy and Najafzadeh, who are both Iranian nationals, remained at large.