ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US Justice Department said late Friday that the Austrian authorities extradited Sezgin Baran Korkmaz, a renowned Kurdish businessman, to the United States. The tycoon is wanted by Washington for money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction charges.
“Sezgin Baran Korkmaz arrived today in Utah in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. Korkmaz was indicted in Salt Lake City, Utah, with laundering more than $133 million in illegal proceeds through bank accounts he controlled in Turkey and Luxembourg,” said the department in a statement late Friday.
“According to an April 2021 superseding indictment, the proceeds relate to a scheme orchestrated in Plymouth, Utah, by Jacob Kingston, Isaiah Kingston and Levon Termendzhyan to defraud the U.S. Treasury by filing false claims for more than $1 billion in tax credits allegedly for the production and sale of biodiesel by their company, Washakie Renewable Energy LLC,” it added.
The Kingston brothers pleaded guilty in July 2019 to federal charges and the next year they testified at the trial of another co-conspirator, Levon Termendzhyan, in Utah. Termendzhyan was convicted of all charges and three of them await sentencing.
Korkmaz was born to a Kurdish family in Kars province, eastern Turkey in 1975, according to Euronews.
Austrian authorities arrested Korkmaz over a year ago. The businessman is also wanted at home for similar charges. He has told Turkish media he preferred to be tried in Turkey.
US authorities accuse Korkmaz and his co-conspirators of using the biofuel fraud proceeds to “acquire luxury homes and assets, as well as businesses such as Biofarma, the Turkish airline Borajet, a yacht named the Queen Anne, a hotel in Turkey and a villa and apartment on the Bosporus river in Istanbul.”
The yacht was seized in Lebanon one year ago and sold for $10.11 million, according to the Justice Department statement.
Korkmaz made a name at home by purchasing companies on the brink of bankruptcy and later selling them after making them turn a profit. Turkish authorities had discovered that the Kurdish tycoon’s companies were involved in money laundering. The Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul had arrested 11 people who worked in his companies, according to Turkey's pro-government Daily Sabah.
He was the founder of SBK Holding which claims on its website that “people and trust” are its “common product.” SBK also claims to invest in leading companies “which add value to the economy.”
Kormaz, who appeared in photographs with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the country's other top officials and reportedly had ties with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), fled Turkey on December 5, 2020.
“If convicted, Korkmaz faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count of money laundering conspiracy, wire fraud, and obstruction of an official proceeding. A district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors,” read the statement from the Justice Department.
