Money exchange house flagged by intelligence for ISIS-linked funding still operating in Turkey

Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm

A money exchange and funds transfer house in Istanbul that raised a red flag with connections to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in a 2016 intelligence alert is still in business in Turkey, a Nordic Monitor investigation has found out.

Makki Kargo ve Pazarlama Dış Ticaret Limited Şirketi (aka Mes Ticaret, Mass Commercial or Makki) was brought to the attention of police intelligence in 2016 when a Turkish national who was reported missing turned up in Syria and received funds from Turkey through the company.

The company appears to be operating in the shadows because trade registry filings do not show it was licensed in the finance and banking industry. The use of unregulated informal financial mechanisms, including hawalas (an alternate way of transferring money outside the traditional banking and financial system), has mushroomed in Turkey in recent years, and many individuals and entities were sanctioned either by the UN or the US on terror designations. The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has come under growing criticism for turning a blind eye to the activities of such networks.

According to a secret intelligence document obtained by Nordic Monitor, the Security General Directorate (Emniyet) transmitted classified information through an interagency cooperation mechanism called OBIPAD (Operational Information Sharing System, or Operasyonel Bilgi Paylaşım Sistemi in Turkish) that identified Makki as a place where funds were illegally transferred to Syria.

Secret intelligence report submitted to the General Staff: 

OBIPAS is a pool system that was established to share sensitive intelligence among the police, gendarmerie, intelligence agency MIT, General Staff and Foreign Ministry. The intelligence was reviewed and submitted to the command at the General Staff on May 19, 2016 as part of the daily intelligence briefing to update senior military leadership.

The intelligence indicated that Turkish national Sercan Baykal turned up in Syria three months after he went missing in Istanbul. He contacted his parents through WhatsApp and apparently asked for money. His father went to Makki to send $300 to his son through a man named Muhammet Dabul, whose identity was not known by the police at the time.

For some reason the transfer was not successful, and his father visited the Makki exchange house again to make another attempt, this time sending funds to a man named Muhammed Sakit. The second attempt was successful, according to the intelligence. Sakit’s identity was also not known by the police.

The intelligence further noted that Baykal was planning to move to Iraq from Syria.

Trade registry filing for the establishment of the company Makki Kargo ve Pazarlama Diş Ticaret Limited Şirketi: 

A review of trade registration papers shows that Makki was established on September 15, 2015 by two Syrian nationals listed as Hazem Mahmoud Makki and Moustafa Mahmoud Maki. The address declared for Moustafa was the same address noted in the police intelligence report, listed as Kemalpaşa Mahallesi Atatürk Bulvarı Yavuz iş merkezi 6/29 Fatih İstanbul. The initial capital for the company was 100,000 Turkish lira ($33,000 at the exchange rate in effect at the time).

The company made a declaration that transportation, real estate, food and construction were the sectors in which it planned to operate. There was no specific provision that indicated it would engage in funds transfer or the money exchange business. Yet the company’s Facebook page, created on May 30, 2015 before it was officially registered, advertised it as a money transfer house.

In March 2017 the owners brought Turkish national Mehmet Karabaş in as general manager. Six months later Karabaş was also made a partner with a 20 percent stake in the firm. On May 2018 a new partner, Fayad Ajaj Krayem, joined as a shareholder with 10 percent he bought from Karabaş. On June 11, 2018 the company increased its capital to 500,000 Turkish lira ($111,000). In December 2020, Krayem left the company, selling his shares back to Karabaş.

Neither Makki nor its owners has been the subject of a crackdown in Turkey. They were not sanctioned by the US Treasury, which in recent years has sanctioned a number of firms in Turkey because of their links to ISIS, Quds Force, Hamas or al-Qaeda. Apparently, the company has suffered no repercussions so far because it was flagged by police intelligence for transferring funds to ISIS in Syria.

All trade registry filings by Makki Kargo ve Pazarlama Diş Ticaret Limited Şirketi after its establishment: 

The company is still in business as of today, advertising itself on Facebook in Arabic as a firm that can transfer funds to any place in Syria. It says it is not the only enterprise that transfers funds but claims to be the fastest and the most affordable. It states that it has partnered with Western Union through Turkish financial firm BPN Ödeme Kuruluşu A.Ş. and PayPorter, a Rotterdam-based payment provider.