EARLIER this year, FBI agents detained Reza Zarrab (pictured), a Turkish gold trader, at Miami’s international airport. His lawyer said he was on a family trip to Disney World. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, batted away questions about the arrest. “This issue is of no concern to our country,” he said.

It now appears otherwise. The investigation into Mr Zarrab, who is accused of using his gold business to help Iran’s government skirt American sanctions, has dredged up embarrassing details about the young businessman’s relationship with senior Turkish officials. In their bid to stop the court accepting Mr Zarrab’s offer of a $50m bail package, American prosecutors alleged that he had paid three Turkish ministers and the head of Halkbank, a state lender, tens of millions of dollars in bribes to keep his business running and hobble competitors. They also pointed to more than $4.5m in donations by Mr Zarrab to a charity founded by Mr Erdogan’s wife. “If the defendant were able to reach Turkish soil, he could cause the highest levels of Turkish government to block his return to the United States,” they concluded.

Similar allegations against Mr Zarrab and others, including the cabinet ministers named in the court document, surfaced during a sweeping corruption investigation that rocked Mr Erdogan’s government in 2013. After the Turkish president (then the prime minister) called the investigation a coup attempt, the charges against Mr Zarrab and the others were dropped. Many of the prosecutors and police officers involved were reassigned or themselves arrested, on conspiracy and terror charges. In 2015 Turkish officials presented Mr Zarrab with a “top exporter” award.

After combing through Mr Zarrab’s e-mail account and smartphone, American investigators say they have found evidence that supports the claims made during the 2013 probe. They may end up with much more if Mr Zarrab, who faces up to 75 years behind bars, cracks and agrees to a plea bargain.

The investigation has already sent Turkish stocks tumbling. Shares in Halkbank have fallen by 20% since Mr Zarrab’s arrest. But it is unlikely to put much of a dent in Mr Erdogan’s reputation at home. He emerged almost unscathed from the 2013 scandal. Many of his voters felt corruption was a small price to pay for a government that delivered prosperity. “The original investigation had limited impact,” says Naz Masraff of Eurasia Group, a consultancy. “This one would have even less.”

Abroad, however, the case may turn into a major headache. If found to have flouted American sanctions, Turkish banks may be barred from doing international business, says Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners, a firm of analysts. “Anything that implicates them would blow up like dynamite.”

And if the American lawyer in charge of the case, Preet Bharara, delivers strong evidence that senior Turkish officials took kickbacks from Mr Zarrab to help Iran evade sanctions, American courts would be able to try them. As the investigation proceeds, Mr Zarrab’s suspected accomplices might want to give Disney World a wide berth.