Zarrab’s courier exposes details of graft figure’s shady gold trade

Zarrab (C) is escorted to a police car in this December, 2013 file photo. (Photo: DHA)

July 18, 2015, Saturday/ 11:50:05/ TODAYSZAMAN.COM / ISTANBUL

One of the couriers who used to work for Reza Zarrab, who was the prime suspect in the sweeping December 2013 corruption allegations, told about the details of how Zarrab facilitated the gold trade he was conducting to circumvent the international sanctions and how government officials helped him.

In an interview with the Cumhuriyet daily on Saturday, courier Adem Karahan who recently spoke to a customs inspector, said Zarrab sold 200 tons of gold in 2012 and 2013. Stating that it was just money that flew abroad until 2012, Karahan said Zarrab’s company sold gold that worth TL 18 billion just in a year. “Four percent of that money went to politicians and four percent went to Zarrab. But we do not know who the actual owner of the money is. Zarrab is also earning money by transferring someone’s money,” he told Cumhuriyet.
Stating that two groups each consisting of 22 couriers conducted the gold transfer, Karahan said the two groups facilitated a total of a ton of gold every day at different hours of the day.

When asked whether they had any difficulty at customs, Karahan said customs officials “all knew about what was going on.” “They were welcoming us at the entrance of the airport. We used to show them the invoices and they were impressing new seals on the gold boxes after conducting necessary controls. They were not creating problem as they were also getting their bribes. Zarrab was personally paying them. I personally witnessed these,” he further said.

The Dec. 17, 2013 graft probe in Turkey implicated ministers, relatives of some cabinet members, businessmen and bureaucrats, as well as others, with charges that included bribery and influence peddling. Zarrab was accused of offering bribes to some ministers worth a total of tens of millions of dollars in exchange for facilitating the gold trade he was conducting to circumvent the international sanctions. Despite the accusations in the investigation files, supported by such evidence as photos of money transactions between his men and the aides of ministers, as well as legally wiretapped phone conversations purportedly between him, his aides and some government members about large amounts of money transfers, the accusations were dropped and he was freed after the government successfully managed to end the probes by meddling with the internal operation of the judiciary, turning a deaf ear to domestic and international outrage for violating the supremacy of law. Zarrab was released in February.

Erdoğan praised Zarrab as a “philanthropist” while the then-Interior Minister Muharrem Güler was heard in a leaked phone conversation purportedly telling Zarrab, who is less than 30 years old, that he “would lie for him” to prevent any harm from coming to him. Zarrab was also accused of giving a luxury watch with a price tag of $350,000 to then-Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan.

Ministers used to solve problems in exchange for bribe

When asked how the gold trade was facilitated without any problems, Karahan says former ministers Güler, Bağış and Çağlayan used to solve any problems that would emerge. “It was also rumored at the company [owned by Zarrab] that million dollars were going to these people apart from gifts,” he said.

According to a summary of proceedings of the covered-up Dec. 17 investigation, a criminal organization allegedly headed by Zarrab is claimed to have distributed to the ministers and their sons a total of TL 137 million ($66 million) in bribes to cloak fictitious exports and money laundering which the organization was engaged in. According to police, Çağlayan accepted, on various occasions in the past, 32 million euros, $6.7 million, TL 3.4 million ($1.6 million) and 300,000 Swiss francs in bribes, which was identified and documented by the police investigation.

The investigation also revealed that Bağış, another minister Zarrab bribed, allegedly received $1.5 million from Zarrab. Bağış allegedly helped Zarrab evade bureaucracy in his dealings and helped Zarrab's father acquire an Italian visa and residence permit.

Wiretapped telephone conversations revealed that Bağış also offered to help Zarrab with his hotel project. In return, Zarrab allegedly sent a total of $1.5 million to Bağış in three separate deliveries. According to the daily, the first sum was delivered to the EU minister in a shoe box, the second in a man's suit and the third in a box of chocolates.

Karahan was also among those detained as part of the Dec. 17 investigation that shook the country. Stating that Zarrab sent him a lawyer to defend him although he did not have such a request, Karahan said the lawyer told him to keep silent. “When I told her that everything the guys [police] said [during the interrogation] was correct, they said I should not speak up. In fact, I told what I knew at the police department, but it was later covered up,” Karahan said.

Fifty-three suspects, including the sons of the three ministers, bureaucrats and prominent businessmen, had been detained in the Dec. 17 operation. This was followed by an operation on Dec. 25, when the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office ordered the detention of 30 suspects, including a number of figures and businessmen affiliated with the Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

However, the İstanbul Police Department, which saw an extensive purge of its top officers following the first wave of the graft probe, did not comply with the order. Among the main suspects of the Dec. 25 investigation was President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's son Bilal; businessmen Mehmet Cengiz and Mustafa Latif Topbaş; and Yasin al-Qadi, a Saudi businessman who is on the US Treasury Department's “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” list.

Since the Dec. 17 investigation was made public, President Erdoğan, who was prime minister at the time, has sought to discredit the prosecutors and police officers involved by accusing them of working to oust the AK Party from power. Those prosecutors and police officers, along with tens of thousands of others, have been reassigned from their positions.

As a result of a series of steps by the government to cover up the investigation, the probe was formally closed on Dec. 16 after the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office announced that it had rejected appeals filed against an earlier decision to dismiss corruption and bribery charges against the 53 suspects.

A parliamentary commission was established to investigate the four former ministers' involvement in corruption, but it and Parliament voted against referring the ex-ministers to the top court for trial.

Karahan said he was not called to testify by the commission but stresses that he is ready to tell whatever he knows to Parliament. “Reza Zarrab is a real liar. He did not work for the benefit of Turkey. He did nothing for Turkey other than serving for politicians and his own interests. … I want all these to be exposed and those who are guilty get their punishment,” he said.
Karahan also said he fears for his life and that of his family.

Official report: Zarrab’s companies imported gold they exported for 89 times

Also on Saturday, the Hürriyet daily published the details of a recent report by inspectors from the Customs Ministry on Zarrab’s trade activities, which it said are “highly suspicious.” The report, which has not urged authorities to take legal action although 11 months have passed since it was completed, says Zarrab’s companies imported Turkish-origin gold back to country after exporting in the first place from Turkey. This process reportedly occurred 89 times through various companies belonging to Zarrab which submitted false declarations about the transactions.

Hürriyet said the report was prepared at the order of then-Customs Minister Hayati Yazıcı after the Dec. 17 probe broke out. The report said “highly suspicious” customs transactions by Zarrab’s companies should be investigated by the Economy Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the Financial Crimes Investigative Board (MASAK), and the Undersecretariat for the Treasury.

Keywords: Reza Zarrab , Iran