Halkbank, Iran and Money Network
The operation to curb suspicious money transactions between a number of Turkish and Iranian companies began in 2011. There were at least 11 companies in total that facilitated gold purchase from Turkey and managed money transfers, which reached $87 billion between 2009 and 2012.

Bank Mellat, 40 percent of which is owned by the Iranian government, was a key actor on the Iranian end of transactions, while the companies built solely for this scheme used the Turkish banks of Aktif Bank, Deniz Bank, Kuveyt Turk and Garanti Bankasi for their financial operations.