{"id":3604,"date":"2008-09-05T16:55:44","date_gmt":"2008-09-05T13:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=3604"},"modified":"2014-01-01T20:09:35","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T18:09:35","slug":"deniz-feneri-dunya-medyasinda-fraud-claims-in-germany-extend-as-far-as-turkeys-conservative-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2008\/09\/05\/deniz-feneri-dunya-medyasinda-fraud-claims-in-germany-extend-as-far-as-turkeys-conservative-media\/","title":{"rendered":"DENIZ FENERI DUNYA MEDYASINDA – Fraud claims in Germany extend as far as Turkey\u2019s conservative media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
\nFraud claims in Germany extend as far as Turkey\u2019s conservative media<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n<\/p>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Large sums of funds donated to a charity by the Turkish community in Germany were transferred to conservative media organs in Turkey, according a statement made one of the suspects in the case before a German court.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The claims in the case against the charity, \u201cDeniz Feneri\u201d (Lighthouse in English), reached as far as the head of Turkey\u2019s media watchdog, Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK), who was a former executive of an Islamist media organ. <\/span>
\nAn executive from the charity and the charity\u2019s accountant appearing before the German court told that donated funds were transferred to Turkish conservative media organs, Turkey\u2019s Hurriyet daily reported.<\/span>
\n\u201cI understand that you financed Kanal 7 with the revenue from the Deniz Feneri Charity. The money was used here because the company (Kanal 7) was struggling to survive. Kanal 7 TV channel, Media GmbH and Yeni Safak daily are each media organs. Every media organ has an aim. What aim do these media organs have?\u201d the judge asked charity accountant Firdevsi Ermis.<\/span>
\nErmis declined to answer the question directly but said the people in question were from \u201cconservative circles\u201d.<\/span>
\nRTUK CHAIRMAN INVOLVED IN CLAIMS<\/span><\/strong>
\nHe said five people, including RTUK Chairman Zahid Akman, were paid 32,000 euros per month as a shareholder of Weiss GmbH, a fake company formed in Germany. Huge amounts of money were also paid to Akman directly, he added.<\/span>
\nWeiss Gmbh is like hidden cash box of Deniz Feneri, and there have been money transfers between Beyaz Holding and Weiss GmbH (Beyaz in Turkish, Weiss in German both mean White in English), Ermis and Mehmet Taksan, another executive of the charity, told before the court.<\/span>
\nBeyaz Holding was founded in 1998, and includes Beyaz Iletisim C.O., which was founded by Akman.<\/span>
\nTaksan also said he personally delivered a cash sum of 200,000 euros to the Kanal 7 building in Turkey.<\/span>
\nSeven million euros were transferred from Deniz Feneri Germany to the charity\u2019s offices in Turkey.<\/span>
\nThe executive boards of Beyaz Holding and Kanal 7 consist of almost the same members, media reports said. These people are also among the five, claimed to have been paid 32,000 euros per month.<\/span>
\nAkman turned over his shares after he appointed was head of RTUK, but still he continues to be a partner of the holding unofficially, the suspects told the court.<\/span>
\nKanal 7 belonged to YIMPAS, a holding that was known for its connections to Turkey\u2019s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Yeni Safak is also a pro-AKP newspaper published in Turkey.<\/span>
\nTurkey<\/span>‘s ruling AKP has been under fire from its opponents, who accuse the government of promoting and supporting Islamist media organs to create a media which indirectly belonged to the party.<\/span>
\nDeniz Feneri was established in 1997 and has been operating in Germany since 1999. <\/span>
\nThe German police raid of the Deniz Feneri and Kanal 7 offices in Frankfurt after allegations of fraud and money laundering were raised last year. Some officials were arrested by police after the raid.<\/span>
\nTrials in the case have been continuing for four days.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fraud claims in Germany extend as far as Turkey\u2019s conservative media Large sums of funds donated to a charity by the Turkish community in Germany were transferred to conservative media organs in Turkey, according a statement made one of the suspects in the case before a German court. The claims in the case against the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":782164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}