Financial Crimes Board Report Praises Shady Businessman Zarrab

A report prepared by the Finance Ministry's Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) generously credited controversial Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab with increasing Turkey's export volume, according to the Cumhuriyet daily on Wednesday.

The report in question is dated July 11, 2013, and it largely credits Zarrab's business operations for prompting a spike in Turkey's export volume. “The money that was transferred from Iranian banks to Zarrab's companies prior to 2012 was TL 112 million in total, whereas in 2012 that number increased 120 times, reaching TL 14.3 billion. The money transfers in question constitute the main source of the country's increase in foreign trade,” said the report.

Zarrab infamously claimed earlier this year that he had closed 15 percent of Turkey's current account deficit (CAD) last year by exporting 200 tons of gold valued at TL 25 billion. However, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan -- while responding to a written inquiry at Parliament -- said there was no recorded information to corroborate Zarrab's claims.

The businessman was one of the prime suspects of a corruption investigation that went public in December of last year. It was alleged that Zarrab bribed Cabinet ministers to aid in the facilitation of a gold-for-gas trade, in which Turkey purchased natural gas from Iran using gold in order to skirt international sanctions. Among the allegations was one asserting that Zarrab had bribed former Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan with a Swiss watched valued at TL 700,000.

The charges against Zarrab, Çağlayan and all other suspects in the case were dropped by a prosecutor earlier this month, effectively putting an end to Turkey's largest and most wide-ranging corruption case.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)