MEHLIS REPORT FINANCING DEMARCHE: TURKEY

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 007136 SIPDIS TREASURY PASS FINCEN E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/05/2010 TAGS: ETTC KTFN EFIN SY TU SUBJECT: MEHLIS REPORT FINANCING DEMARCHE: TURKEY REF: A. STATE 214622 ¶B. DAMASCUS 6224 Classified By: Economic Counselor Thomas Goldberger for reasons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Turkey is a likely refuge for Syrians implicated in the Mehlis report to try to hide their assets. Econcouns met separately with MFA DDG for Security Huseyin Bicakli and, Genc Osman Yarasli, President of MASAK, Turkey's FIU, to deliver reftel demarche. In both meetings, EconCouns discussed the danger of Mehlis report-named Syrian officials moving their money in anticipation of possible UN sanctions and describved how the U.S. had alerted our financial institutions. Bicakli and Yarasli seemed to take the point and undertook to be on the lookout for suspicious movements of funds. Yarasli said MASAK would search for the Syrian names in the suspicious transaction reports MASAK receives from financial institutions. ¶2. (C) Separately, over the past year Amcon Adana has heard several unconfirmed reports of transactions of hundreds of millions of dollars each that are passed through foreign exchange bureaus in Gaziantep, with the funds coming from Syria. Post has no way of knowing whether the individuals listed in ref a) are involved with these transactions. WILSON