As Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek searches for hot money in the Gulf, 2 Turkish businesspeople turn out to be Dominican

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek frequently makes investor visits to London and Gulf countries, promoting attractive business opportunities in Turkey. 

BirGün columnist Ozan Gündoğdu writes in his column today that Şimşek might be looking for money in the wrong place. This is because the research files of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), while tracking the trail of money, also expose the activities of Turkey's wealthy families outside of Turkey. On October 11, a research file conducted by 14 international news organizations, including The Guardian, in partnership with the OCCRP was published. The file used the title, “Dominica: Caribbean Passports.” 

SECURE STORAGE OPPORTUNITY IN THE 'DARK BANK' SYSTEM

Stating that Dominica, which offers its citizens a "golden passport" opportunity, provides two attractive prospects, Gündoğdu said the following:

"The first is the power of the passport. According to the index of Henley and Partners, a company that provides consulting for citizenship and residency programs through investment to wealthy families, Dominica has the 40th most powerful passport in the world. If you hold this passport, you can travel visa-free to 143 countries, including EU countries. 

However, the only advantage of having a Dominican passport is not visa-free travel. This small Caribbean island is also an “offshore” paradise that keeps your financial information like a secret. Just like other Atlantic islands such as the Seychelles, Cayman, Marshall, Palau, and others... You can safely store your money in the “dark bank” system in Dominican banks. 

According to the same index, the Turkish passport is in 89th place. In this state, the Dominican passport is extremely attractive for Turkish citizens. Moreover, you do not even need to visit Dominica to become a citizen. Just 100 thousand dollars in exchange for visa-free travel rights to the EU and financial privacy."

DEMİRÖREN AND ÇAĞLAR ALSO TURNED OUT TO BE DOMINICAN

"Yıldırım Demirören and Cavit Çağlar also obtained Dominica's golden passport and became Dominican citizens," said Gündoğdu, adding:

"One might think that 'thanks to this, they do not experience visa crises when going to Europe like ordinary citizens of the Republic of Turkey.' However, these two names already have the power to benefit from the green passport right granted to exporters. In other words, they cannot be having a visa problem anyway. So why do reputable businesspeople obtain citizenship from Caribbean islands? Offshore advantages come to mind, but we cannot know for sure. 

But we know from the Oxfam report that there are 2 trillion dollars in bank accounts in tax havens. We can only learn the names of those with golden passports thanks to Wikileaks, the Panama Papers, the Pandora Papers, or most recently, the Dominica leaks."  

Gündoğdu also stated that Turkish citizenship is not enough for the country's wealthy, saying:

"Turkish citizenship is not enough for the country's wealthiest; they obtain citizenship from tax havens. Everything is within legal bounds. If the money is not exposed by a leak, it waits in accounts in secrecy. No records, no taxes... And Mehmet Şimşek puts the responsibility for inflation on the laborers while telling the world how full of attractive opportunities Turkey is."

News Source: 12punto