A FEW MORE DETAILS EMERGE ABOUT TURKEY'S MONEY LAUNDERING ARRESTS

DHKP-C flag

A few additional details have been made public, regarding the massive money laundering arrests said to have occurred in Turkey, involving funds alleged to have been routed to Iranians resident in the United States. Given that no specific information is avasilable, we are unable to confirm its accuracy; the Government of Turkey has, in recent years, made arrests that appear to have been made for purely political, and not valid law enforcement, reasons, so take this news with a grain of salt.

(1) 280, out of the total of 417 suspects originally stated, are said to be in custody in Turkey.

(2) The amount of money claimed to have been laundered through Turkish banks and financial facilities is in excess of $400m, employing over 28,000 bank accounts.

(3) The transferor groups that were  involved include Hezbollah, the Kurdish sanctioned organization, PKK, the Gulenist group, FETO, and the Revolutionary Peoples' Liberation Party-Front, DHKP-C.

(4) Those arrersted received commissions for making the transfers, were part of an organized structure, and were linked together.

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It is at this stage impossible to determine whether Turkey is seeking to take advantage of the exposure of a major money laundering network to cast blame on some of its traditional opposition organizations, or whether they are legitimately involved in moving funds for Iranians.