Father, son in court over $205m crypto money laundering claims
A FATHER and son suspected of being involved in a massive money laundering scheme have appeared in court.
The two suspects, both with the initials “ST”, are alleged to have brought a total of 30 million euros in cash into the TRNC while also transferring $205 million from crypto currency accounts.
It is believed that the money is the proceeds of crime. A businessman, referred to by the initials “ÖT”,
allegedly took receipt of 2.55 million euros of the money.
He and the father and son were brought to Lefkoşa District Court on Monday to hear the cases against them.
Pointing out that “criminal gangs” have recently been laundering money via crypto currencies, the Financial Police said that they are investigating the $205 million that came into a crypto account on father ST’s mobile phone and was transferred to another account at the same time.
The Financial Police emphasised that son ST also took flights to and from the TRNC “many times” for just a day and that he declared a “large amount of money” when he left Turkey but “did not declare any money when he entered the TRNC”.
ÖT, who has a business in Lefkoşa’s walled city, was brought before the court on charges of “violating the Prevention
of Laundering Criminal Proceeds Law”, while the father and son were charged with “violating the Currency Exchange Law” and “violating the Prevention of Laundering Criminal Proceeds Law”.
During the case that was presided over by Judge Hazal Hacımulla, Public Prosecutor Hasan Boşnak called police officer Mehmet Davulcu as a witness.
Officer Davulcu testified that 60-year-old ST, who declared that the 800,000 euros in cash he brought from İstanbul to the TRNC on August 6, and 1.1 million euros he brought a few months ago were for an “investment” but that he did not invest the money anywhere.
He then explained that the man’s son also travelled to the TRNC “at the request of his father”, and entered the country via Ercan airport with 150,000 euros of cash on each trip a total of 10 times between January 9, 2022, and July 14, 2022, without declaring the money to customs officials.
Davulcu noted that the suspect gave a voluntary statement “confessing to his crime” and said that he had handed over 2.55 million euros to suspect ÖT, who police subsequently arrested.
Davulcu pointed out that a “$205 million transaction” was detected in two separate crypto accounts that overlap with the dates that father ST brought 30 million euros in cash, which was thought to be criminal proceeds.
Davulcu conveyed to the court that this money was transferred to different accounts at the same time and that “criminal gangs have been laundering money through crypto recently”.
Police officer Davulcu explained that they had received information that “HK”, who worked for ÖT and had picked up the father and son suspects from the airport with company vehicles, had been “smuggled abroad by his boss” and that an investigation had been launched based on this.
Davulcu stated that there was information that the wanted suspect HK left the country in the boot of a car with the help of ÖT.
Listing the total amount of cash smuggled into the North Cyprus, Davulcu pointed out that father ST brought 14 million euros, his son 10.6 million euros, another person called “MT” brought 4.45 million euros “under the guidance” of the father and son suspects, while son ST entered the TRNC on May 8, 2022, with $6.88 million that “he declared in Turkey but did not declare here”.
Indicating that the “part of the investigation that the suspects could influence” has been completed, Davulcu requested that the fatherson suspects, who were in the country as “tourists”, be remanded in custody and that suspect ÖT, who “has been living in the TRNC for 15 years and has businesses here”, be granted an “appropriate bail” by the court.
Judge Hacımulla ordered the father and son suspects be remanded in custody for no more than one month.
The judge granted bail to suspect ÖT with the conditions that he is banned from going abroad until the trial, that he deposits a 150,000 TL cash bond, that three “honourable” TRNC citizens each sign 300,000TL sureties, and that he presents himself in person to the police two days a week.