Info:
In September, a US Treasury blacklist showed that Turkey has become a haven for terror financing schemes. According to The Washington Examiner, the survivors of a 2015 terrorist attack in the West Bank filed a lawsuit against a bank with ties to the Turkish government, accusing the lender of supporting the terrorist group Hamas. Court documents accuse the Turkey-based Kuveyt Bank of aiding and abetting Hamas by “knowingly providing it substantial assistance via financial services” channeled through both the US and international financial systems between 2012 and 2015. Kuveyt’s primary shareholder is the General Directorate of Associations, an arm of the Turkish government;
Jonathan Schanzer, a former US Treasury official and current senior VP for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), told the Examiner:
“Sponsorship of Hamas, allowing for jihadists to cross the border to fight in Syria on the side of dangerous Islamist groups, including al Qaeda and ISIS (IS), facilitating sanctions evasion on behalf of the Iranian regime, support for the Muslim Brotherhood. These are foreign policy decisions that the Turkish government has made under Erdoğan. The lawsuit against [Kuveyt] Bank, which counts the Turkish government as a shareholder, comes two weeks after the US Treasury sanctioned eleven Turkey-linked entities and individuals for supporting Hamas and other jihadist outfits. … Between 2012 and 2015, Tehran [too] relied on Turkish banks and a gold trader with dual Iranian-Turkish citizenship to circumvent US sanctions at the height of Washington’s efforts to thwart the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions. It was the biggest sanctions-evasions scheme in recent history”;
Hamas is designated as terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Funding from Iran, Hamas managed to allocate at a cost of $60 million Receive military style training, including training in Iran and in Syria;
Subsidiaries:
KT Bank AG
Shareholders:
Kuwait Finance House holding at 62,24 percent
Turkish General Directorate of Foundations holding at 18 percent
Kuwaiti Public Institution for Social Security holding at 9 percent
Islamic Development Bank holding 9 percent
Also Known As:
Kuveyt Bank
Kuveyt Türk Katılım Bankası A.Ş.
Kuveyt Turk Bank
Established:
1989
Country:
Turkey
Address:
Buyukdere Cad. No: 129/1 34394 Esentepe / Istanbul / Turkey
Phone:
+90 (0212) 354 11 11
Website:
www.kuveytturk.com.tr
E-mail:
info@kuveytturk.com.tr