https://archive.triblive.com/news/how-u-s-attorney-preet-bharara-became-a-twitter-sensation-in-turkey/
How U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara became a Twitter sensation — in Turkey
Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, left, speaks next to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and FBI Director James Comey, during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Thursday, March 24, 2016.
Preet Bharara has prosecuted mobsters from the Gambino family, Islamic terrorists, Wall Street insiders and top New York lawmakers. But it was a money laundering case announced this week that has made the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York a bona fide celebrity on social media and elevated him into a national obsession — in Turkey.
Bharara gained almost 250,000 followers on Twitter, many of them Turkish, after he announced Monday that a grand jury indicted a Turkish-Iranian businessman on suspicion of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.
Although the case mostly involves Reza Zarrab's dealings with the government in Iran — rather than in Turkey — many Turkish citizens suspect Zarrab, 33, of eluding justice in a corruption case in that country. But since that case collapsed, many see Bharara as their best hope of providing justice.
Twitter users have Photoshopped Bharara's face onto Superman's body and have been offering to send the U.S. attorney gifts, including Turkish delight sweets, Turkish kebab and Turkish rugs.
NBA player Enes Kanter of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who is from Turkey, made a jersey with Bharara's name on it and tweeted a photo of himself wearing it.
“Proud of your good work. Keep it up!! Bharara The Justice Hunter,” Kanter wrote.
In his only public acknowledgment of the mania, Bharara, who was born in India, wrote to a Turkish Twitter user, “Well, I do love shish kebab but I don't think I can accept gifts just for doing my job.”
The remark was retweeted more than 37,000 times. That's a bigger response than Kanye West usually gets.
Zarrab, who was arrested in Miami last weekend, is accused of being centrally involved in a conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran by moving around hundreds of millions of dollars worth of transactions on behalf of the Iranian government and businesses.
Zarrab was arrested in Turkey in 2013 in a complicated corruption case that involved allegations of bribing cabinet ministers in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.
People believed that case “was literally covered up by the government,” said Irem Koker, a former Turkish journalist and columnist studying international affairs at Columbia University in New York. “And when he was arrested in the U.S., in Miami, and this 21-page indictment was revealed, people were like, ‘Yes! Finally someone is going to do something about these guys.' ”
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