“Pandora’s Documents” puts a Turkish minister under fire from opposition in parliament

“Opposition MP Garo Paylan questioned Finance Minister Lotfi Alwan over the smuggling of 220 people into tax havens, local newspaper Zaman reported.”

Pandora’s documents, on which the International Federation of Investigative Journalists works in Washington, revealed the names of thousands of businessmen and politicians around the world who smuggle their money into tax havens to evade payment.

Pandora’s documents included the names of 220 individuals who smuggled money from Turkey to safe tax havens.

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According to the first document concerning Turkey, Aicha Ilıcak, the mother of Erman Ilıcak, the director of Ronesans, which acquired her wealth through numerous huge government tenders, including presidential palaces and hospitals, transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to the British Virgin Islands.

“Many politicians around the world resigned over the Panama Papers in 2016 and there were real investigations against them in those countries, but Turkey did not carry out real investigations against the figures mentioned in those documents,” said parliamentarian Paylan of the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party.

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The questioning of the Turkish Minister of Treasury and Finance raised questions about the possibility of opening an investigation into the Pandora’s Fund for people smuggling their money into tax havens, and the extent to which any initiative to obtain information on the 220 Turkish figures mentioned in the documents could be implemented.

The interrogation also included the extent to which an investigation could be opened into the Turkish figures and companies mentioned in the documents, including the smuggling of funds illegally acquired from government tenders to tax havens by contractors close to the ruling party.

Paylan questioned whether it was possible to ask the Financial Crime Commission to look into the allegations in the documents or to investigate the contractor who had transferred his assets from the presidential palace to a tax haven.