TURKEY'S GUARANTI BANK REPORTEDLY INVOLVED IN TROIKA DIALOG SCANDAL

Media in the Netherlands has reportedly linked Guaranti Bank, the second-largest privately owned bank in Turkey, to the Russian money laundering operation popularly known in the press as the Troika Dialog. The bank, whose legal name is Turkiyi Guaranti Bankasi AS, allegedly was involved in the movement of €1bn from Russia, into the Netherlands.

The bank was said to be using seventy shell corporations, all moving the money through accounts in Lithuania. We note that the value of the bank's stock has now significantly declined, though it is not known if this is related to the money laundering allegations.

Observers of the EU banking scene may recall that Guaranti Bank was hit with an €8m fine from a French court in 2017, in a carbon tax trading fraud case. It is not known whether the bank filed an appeal from that ruling, and if so, what the outcome was.