Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/826731
maltatoday, FRIDAY, 19 MAY 2017 News 9 thanks to Maltese system ly brought to Çalık in Tur- key, the tax authorities were fooled into believing it was from a high-tax and reputa- ble jurisdiction in Scandina- via, so no alarm bells rang. Atalay was unconvinced about going through with the plan. But his chagrin was mostly fuelled by his reluctance to move his fam- ily from Dubai to Malta. He told Albayrak that Çalık should forget the compli- cated tax scheme and in- stead "wait until [the Turk- ish government] offers a tax amnesty" – parliamentary bills that allow the tax-free and legal repatriation of off- shore funds. "We are talking about Turkey," Atalay writes, "there is always a tax amnes- ty [coming]." Atalay didn't give up. A few months later, on 24 January, 2012, he emailed his boss, Şafak Karaaslan, and com- plained further about the new system that would see him relocate to Malta. Karaaslan wanted to press through with the plan: "I'm just laughing and can't say anything," he responded. "[Çalık] compulsorily takes a decision regarding tax plan- ning in accordance with its interests." Over the next year or so, Karaaslan works on the scheme. In 2012, he incor- porated four new companies in Sweden – Çalık Textile, Çalık Energy, Çalık Mar- keting and Çalık Construc- tion. The following year, he opened eight more limited companies in Malta: Fashion Zone Textile Holding, Fash- ion Zone Textile, Synergy Marketing Holding, Synergy Marketing, Technological Energy Holding, Techno- logical Energy, White Con- struction Holding and White Construction. Today these companies are in liquidation, and only one of them was ever declared in Çalık Group's Turkish an- nual reports: Çalık Energy in Sweden, which was listed as "inactive". Similarly, none of the com- pany accounts in Malta or Sweden reveals cash trans- fers, and Çalık never moved Atalay to Malta, as planned. This is because Çalık had no need for a complicat- ed and potentially illegal scheme: Albayrak was on his way to the top. At the end of 2013, months after the Maltese companies were established, Berat Al- bayrak resigned as CEO of Çalık to run as an MP for Erdogan's Justice and Devel- opment Party (AKP) in the June 2015 Turkish elections. Unsurprisingly, he was victorious, and five months later he was appointed as Turkey's Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. Berat Albayrak is the son of conservative writer and Pres- ident Erdoğan's good friend, Sadik Albayrak. In 2004, Berat married Erdoğan's eld- est daughter, Esra. Educated and connected, he became CEO of Turkish business gi- ant Çalık Holding in 2007, when he was only 29 years old, after working for the company since 1999. Çalık's chairman, Ahmet Çalık, is a close associate of Erdoğan and has ties to numerous foreign leaders. From March 2007 until his departure for politics in 2013, Albayrak presided over a company that grew ever closer to Erdogan's gov- ernment and ever richer, earning billions in public tenders. A year following Albayrak's promotion to CEO, Çalık bought Sabah-ATV, Turkey's second-biggest media com- pany and owner of the Sabah daily newspaper, which had been seized by the govern- ment. Çalık was the sole bid- der for the tender, offering a 1.1 billion USD bid, which is said to have been financed by loans from two Turkish banks and Qatari investors, according to Turkish news reports. Despite having no back- ground or experience in politics, Albayrak has led the Turkish Energy Ministry since November 2015. Many now believe that Erdogan is grooming Albayrak as his successor. Albayrak joined Erdogan on his recent visit to the US where the pair were filmed together out- side the Turkish Embassy in Washington, looking at their security detail beat up peaceful protesters. Reporting by CRAIG SHAW & ZEYNEP SENTEK European Investigative Col- laborations (EIC) brought together 13 media outlets and 47 journalists in 16 countries, and which include L'Espresso, Le Soir, NRC, DER SPIEGEL, The Roma- nian Centre for Investigative Journalism / TheBlackSea. eu, Mediapart, Politiken, NewsWeek Serbia, El Mundo, Expresso, Dagens Nyheter, MaltaToday, The Intercept and Agência Sportlight. CONTESTING DISTRICT 9 GHARGHUR, MSIDA, SWATAR, SAN GWANN KAPPARA, SWIEQI, MADLIENA, TA' XBIEX . DISTRICT 10 GZIRA, NAXXAR (PART OF), BAHAR IC-CAGHAQ PEMBROKE, ST.JULIAN'S, PACEVILLE, SLIEMA . . .