A resounding scandal for the Houthis...flirting with the Turkish Brotherhood and dealing with banks involved in money laundering and pornographic investments
English - Monday 17 July 2023 الساعة 09:17 am
Sana'a, NewsYemen, exclusive:
In the latest manifestation of the courtship that the Imamate militia in Sana'a resorted to recently to rapprochement with the Muslim Brotherhood, two banking officials affiliated with the Houthi group, Iran's arm in Yemen, have been seeking, since last June, to weave relations with Turkish banks.
Some media websites affiliated with the militia stated that the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Yemen and Gulf Bank, Dr. Marwan Muhammad Khaled, and the Deputy General Manager of the bank, Eng. Tawfiq Hanish, visited a number of banks in the Turkish Republic to enhance areas and aspects of joint cooperation, establish strategic partnerships and exchange banking experiences between them and the bank. This is within the framework of building the bank's network of external relations with a number of Arab and regional banks.
Among the banks that the two banking officials affiliated with the Houthi militia are seeking to establish strategic partnerships with, is "Active Bank", which is described as the largest private investment bank in Turkey, and in 2020 suspicions arose about its involvement in money laundering and financing terrorism and facilitating bank transactions for companies that invest in pornographic sites. .
In September 2020, the German "Deutsche Welle" website stated that the "Vinsen files", which are a number of confidential documents leaked from the US Treasury, shed light on the central role of the Turkish Active Bank in facilitating suspicious financial transactions. The site indicated, at the time, quoting the report that Active Bank. Owned by Ahmet Celik, a close business ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he is "suspected of being involved in large-scale money laundering for a client network that includes scandal-ridden German financial service provider Wirecard and shady figures from the porn world."
The report stated that Turkish Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, Erdogan's son-in-law, was CEO of Activbank's parent group, Gallik Holding, at the time when several "suspicious transactions" took place.
Vincent's files were then leaked to BuzzFeed News and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The leaked files are from the FinCEN Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a US Treasury office that collects and analyzes information about financial transactions in order to combat domestic and international money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes.
The report stated that ActivBank is assisting the German Wire Card Bank, which "made a good deal with clients from the porn and gambling industries," including (Mind Geek), the owners of the "PornHope" and "YouPorn" websites. Deutsche Welle. The report added that the German bank "conducted up to 12" suspicious transactions "with a value of more than $110,000 (93,000 euros) through its account at Active Bank between May and July 2014." It also highlighted ActiveBank's operations in Afghanistan, with 561 "suspicious transfers" worth $35.3 million from Afghan accounts.
The German website said that these transfers indicate money laundering because there is no information about the companies, which raises questions about the possibility of them being fake companies. ActiveBank has also had dealings with New Kabul Bank, an institution at the center of a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal in 2010, and Watan Oil and Gas, which the US government has accused of having ties to the extremist Islamist movement Taliban. Deutsche Welle stated that the US government's investigation into the Watan group revealed that it had paid the Taliban several million dollars in exchange for protecting its convoys.
The report added that the Iranian-Turkish gold trader, Reza Zarrab, stated in his testimony in 2007 that he was transferring cash to the Central Bank of Iran after opening an account with Active Bank with the help of then-Minister of Europe Egemen Baghish, starting from 5 to 10 million euros per day to avoid US sanctions on Iran. Zarrab said that Active Bank was cut off from the movement in late 2011, and then resorted to Halkbank in 2012.
The 26 September Net website - the version controlled by the Imamate militia - stated that the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Yemen and Gulf Bank, affiliated to it, discussed with representatives of Active Bank "the technical requirements for developing the transfer system between the two banks and starting the necessary procedures to provide the requirements for opening bank accounts between the two sides."
Among the banks visited by the two Houthi bankers in Turkey is (Golden Global) Bank, which is mentioned in its definition published on its website as an international financial center "in a way that complements the commercial and financial identity of Istanbul, and aims to enhance the volume of national foreign trade by focusing on banking services for foreign trade operations in target markets, especially in neighboring countries. The Houthi media mentioned that the Golden Global Bank first requested to send a specialized team on its part to Yemen to study the available investment opportunities.
The two Houthi bankers, who traveled to Turkey to attend the Arab Economic Conference held in Turkey last June, also visited Ziraat Bank, a Turkish state-owned bank established in 1863, ten years before the second Turkish occupation of northern Yemen.
The militia hopes to forge cooperative relations with this bank to finance investment projects that it says will "contribute to achieving sustainable development in Yemen, in addition to a number of banking services that serve Yemeni and Turkish businessmen and investors, expatriates and students studying in Turkey."
In the definition of Ziraat Bank on its website, it began as a "cooperative fund" between a number of Turkish farmers in the year 1863 to face the difficulties they were facing during the Ottoman Empire's preoccupation with expanding its influence outside its lands, and then the state soon acquired it in the year 1916 when the empire was Reeling through World War I before its final downfall two years later.
According to the militia-controlled September 26 website, this tour of banking officials to Turkey comes "within the framework of achieving the bank's new vision (Yemen and the Gulf) aimed at building bridges of communication with everyone with the aim of investing in areas of achieving sustainable development and enhancing the confidence of the Yemeni banking sector in the market, and building Effective, strong and solid partnership with foreign investors wishing to invest in Yemen and form a common base in which efforts are combined and visions are shared in order to achieve sustainable development, create investment opportunities that improve the standard of living of the Yemeni citizen, contribute to reducing poverty and unemployment, and contribute to a comprehensive economic and social renaissance and prosperity for all Yemenis.
This alleged vision contradicts the hostile economic policy of the front militia towards the Yemenis in the liberated areas, as it continues to prevent the export of oil under the threat of targeting oil facilities with ballistic missiles and drones. It also continues to besiege the city of Taiz for eight years and manipulates the banking sector throughout Yemen by virtue of its control over Sanaa. . In addition, the militia continues to pursue a policy of unfair levies that deplete the resources of the national labor force in the areas under its control in a way that has made the spread of hunger, poverty and epidemics main features of its dynastic regime.
