One of the world’s oldest marketplaces is doubling as a modern hub for sanctions evasion and large-scale money laundering, according to experts who spoke to The New York Post.
In April, Turkish police seized $30 million in smuggled jewels and diamonds tied to Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar and, in February, arrested 37 people after identifying 93 shell companies allegedly laundering some $250 million through the market and major banks.
The cases are likely only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to criminal activity at the world-renowned marketplace, according to an academic who spoke with the newspaper.
“It’s been an epicenter of money laundering for a long time,” said Louise Shelley, a transnational crime expert and professor emerita at George Mason University, who believes that illicit trade at the bazaar has helped Russia and Iran move value outside of the formal banking system.
The clandestine trade “is what’s keeping the Russian economy afloat” despite Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine, Shelley told the news outlet.
Roughly $900 million a year in Venezuelan gold is routed through Turkey, then swapped for sanctioned oil and commodities from Russia and Iran, according to anti-corruption specialists cited by The New York Post. The gold often passes through refineries in Turkey and trading houses in the United Arab Emirates before being melted down, re-stamped with new serial numbers and sold on.
The mechanics are simple but hard to police. Only a small share of global cargo is physically inspected, noted Oguzhan Akin of Transparency International. Within the bazaar, small workshops can smelt and recast large quantities of metal, allowing tainted gold from Russia, Iran or Venezuela to be laundered into seemingly legitimate bullion.
Read more at The New York Post