US prosecutor is in the spotlight - in Turkey

A New York federal prosecutor has become a big name in Turkey after the arrest of a prominent businessman who was once entangled in a corruption scandal there.
Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara's Twitter following soared from several thousand to over a quarter-million after he tweeted Tuesday that Reza Zarrab would "soon face American justice" after being arrested on charges of conspiring to evade US economic sanctions against Iran.
Bharara has since fielded a slew of messages in Turkish or from people writing in English about the case. Oklahoma City Thunder center Enes Kanter, who's Turkish, tweeted a photo of himself in a jersey with Bharara's name on it and said he was proud of the prosecutor's work.

Another Twitter user wrote to offer the prosecutor shish kebab, Turkish carpets or other Turkish items.
"Well, I do love shish kebab but I don't think I can accept gifts just for doing my job," Bharara replied Tuesday in a message that was retweeted over 38,000 times.
The Iranian-Turkish Zarrab, 33, is a well-known figure in Turkey, partly because he's married to Turkish pop star and TV personality Ebru Gundes. But Zarrab gained notoriety on his own when he was arrested in a complicated, high-level Turkish government corruption case in 2013. He maintained his innocence, and the charges were dropped.

Now, Zarrab and two other people are charged in the US with conspiring to process hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of financial transactions for Iranian businesses or Iran's government -- transactions banned by US and international sanctions.

The conspirators used a network of companies in Iran, Turkey and elsewhere to launder the proceeds and defraud several financial institutions, including US banks, by concealing the true nature of the financial moves, prosecutors said.
Zarrab was arrested March 19 in Miami; his lawyer hasn't immediately responded to message left Sunday and earlier about the case. Zarrab's co-defendants remain at large.
Bharara has led one of the nation's most high-profile federal prosecutor's offices since 2009, pursuing cases that range from terrorism to Wall Street fraud to state political corruption and making the cover of Time magazine in 2012. His career also has drawn attention in India, where he was born.