MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : Turkish businessman used $133 million fraud money to buy airlines, yacht – U.S. prosecutor
Turkish businessman used $133 million fraud money to buy airlines, yacht – U.S. prosecutor
Turkish businessman Sezgin Baran Korkmaz spent $133 million obtained illegally from U.S. taxpayers to buy assets including a luxury yacht, an airline and a luxury villa on Istanbul’s Bosporus straits, according to an indictment unsealed on Monday by the U.S. Justice Department.
Korkmaz laundered the money via bank accounts in Turkey and Luxembourg, the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office of Utah said in the document. The United States and Turkey have applied for the businessman’s extradition after Austrian police arrested him on Saturday.
The $133 million constitutes the proceeds from a scheme by Jacob Kingston, Isaiah Kingston, and Lev Aslan Dermen to defraud the U.S. Treasury by filing false claims for over $1 billion in refundable renewable fuel tax credits for the production and sale of biodiesel by their company, Washakie Renewable Energy.
U.S. prosecutors have charged Korkmaz with one count of conspiring to commit money laundering, ten counts of wire fraud, and one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, according to the fifteen-page indictment. If found guilty, he could spend decades in jail.
Dermen and Korkmaz sent the $133 million to Korkmaz’s accounts via wire transfers and then back to a Los Angeles bank account in the name of Dermen, the Utah prosecutors’ office said.
A total of $301,315,477 was allegedly transferred through 30 bank transactions using accounts opened on behalf of Jacob Kingston and the companies owned by Kingston in Turkey.
The indictment stated that companies including pharmaceutical firm Biofarma, Servus (later named Setap and Blane), Mega Asset Management, Bukombin, Bugaraj, Borajet and Aydın Jet (later renamed SBK Air) were used for the money laundering transactions.
During the process, Korkmaz and his co-conspirators acquired hotels in Turkey and Switzerland, a yacht named the Queen Anne, a Turkish hospital, Borajet and a villa and an apartment on the Bosphorous, the Utah prosecutors said.
The indictment also outlined transactions worth $6 million sent to Turkish banks Garanti Bank, Türk Ekonomi Bankası and Akbank.
Sezgin Baran Korkmaz is the sole owner of SBK Holding in Turkey, Isane S.a.r.l. in Luxembourg, and Turkish medical firm Biofarma and controls bank accounts maintained in the names of these entities, the prosecutors said.
Korkmaz also holds other bank accounts in Turkey either directly or through Jacob Kingston and Alptekin Yılmaz, maintained in the names of Komak Thermal Insulation Systems Industry, Setap Technology Systems Industry, Blane Technology Systems Industry and Mega Asset Management, they said.
Korkmaz faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for money laundering, 20 years for each of the 10 counts of wire fraud and a five-year sentence for obstructing justice, if found guilty by the Utah court, the U.S. Justice Department said on Monday.
The chief public prosecutor in Utah has requested the seizure of Korkmaz’s assets and their transfer to the U.S. treasury. The assets include businesses, properties and movables such as Korkmaz’s umbrella company in Turkey SBK Holding, a subsidiary in Luxembourg, a private jet, yachts, Biofarma and a hotel near the resort town of Bodrum.