ANKARA, 29 August 2003 — A Turkish court yesterday issued arrest warrants for two members of the Uzan family, dealing a fresh blow to the wealthy clan under investigation for financial irregularities at their former flagship bank.
The warrants for family patriarch Kemal Uzan and his brother Yavuz Uzan were issued after the two failed to turn up for questioning as part of an investigation into Imar Bank, the Anatolia news agency reported. Imar Bank was seized by the banking watchdog last month after an inspection revealed violations of the banking law that authorities said could have put Turkey’s banking system in jeopardy. But the Uzans — one of the richest families in Turkey — have condemned the seizure as a politically-motivated move against the fast-rising Youth Party set up by the family’s scion Cem Uzan.
Public opinion polls show the Youth Party is fast gaining on the ruling Justice and Development party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Kemal Uzan’s younger son, Hakan Uzan, and another family member, Bahattin Uzan, are currently also being sought for questioning but no arrest warrant has been issued for them, Anatolia said.
Banking authorities have declined to give details about their probe into Imar Bank but they have spoken of a deficit — totaling 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) according to press reports — and improper transactions such as collecting depositors’ funds to purchase treasury bonds without such bonds being bought.
Twenty-six people — including Uzan family members and senior figures at Imar Bank — have been called in by prosecutors to answer questions over the financial irregularities of the bank. Turkey’s banking law gives the state wide powers to investigate losses by failed banks and provides for heavy penalties, including jail terms and confiscation of personal assets, against owners and managers of such banks. So far, 20 of those sought have either been hauled in by police or have turned up at the prosecutor’s office by themselves to give testimony that could prove further damaging to the family. Nine have formally been placed under arrest and jailed, Anatolia said. Press reports have said the prosecution is looking to charge the Uzans with fraud and embezzlement in the Imar Bank case, crimes which could land them in jail.
In what appears to be a rapidly-widening operation against the family, police has also raided dozens of companies controlled by the family, as well as a farm and an island in the Mediterranean. They have also seized a luxury yacht and are keeping another under close observation. A third yacht is missing, with press reports claiming it is sailing in Greek waters in the Aegean. Authorities also seized several cars, two racing horses and froze the family’s assest spread across dozens of companies.
The Uzans started out in the construction business before building an industrial empire which today comprises banks, the country’s second largest mobile phone operator, television stations and newspapers. The tide turned for the family — long suspected of poor business ethics — when in June the government took control of their two power utilities. It was followed in July by Imar Bank’s seizure and the replacement of the management of the family’s second bank. In August, authorities cancelled the sale of the state petrochemicals firm after the Uzans, who won the tender, failed to make an intitial payment. On July 31, a US court ordered the family to pay $4.26 billion (3.75 billion euros) to Motorola, their cell-phone partner in Turkey, saying that the family had “perpetrated huge fraud.”
