Report reveals how Gülenists syphoned money from public companies

ANKARA

A recent report by the Turkish Police Academy has revealed the methods members of the Fethullah Gülen movement allegedly used to defraud public sector companies, including the state-run television channel TRT, hospitals, universities and schools. 

The Gülenists caused an estimated 300 million Turkish Liras in losses at TRT, according to the report.

The Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ), which is accused of perpetrating the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, used TRT employees and service providers to grant them high salaries or royalties so as to receive kickbacks for the movement, the report said. 

“It has been determined that FETÖ members first sidelined production companies that were not linked to them before unfairly earning 300 million liras by granting business to those who were under their own guidance,” according to the report “Public goods and services used for terror aims,” which focused on the Gülenists and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

The report accused the movement of charging money for TV shows which had not yet been produced. 

It estimated that “texts without any newsworthy items” were sent to around 400 reporters so as to create royalties that would later be collected by the movement in kickbacks. 

The 66-page report also said diplomats devoid of any foreign language skills were hired at the Foreign Ministry thanks to cheating on public service exams. 

Just four of 95 diplomats who passed the written exams were able to succeed on oral exams, the report said. 
The report claimed the PKK and FETÖ cooperated in engaging in exam and diploma fraud.

It also called for an inspection of academics appointed to Turkish universities after studying abroad thanks to finances from the Education Ministry. 

Such universities should also be inspected, it said, adding that Gülenist followers congregated in newly founded universities and rose quickly within the academic world.

The police also fired 19 of 20 of employees who applied for PhD exams due to alleged links with FETÖ, it said. 

Separately, the report said people including pharmacy owners, doctors and nurses, used fake prescriptions to send drugs to members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the PKK and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara has described as a terrorist organization for its links to the PKK. 
This illegal drug transfer also resulted in losses for the social security system, the report noted. 

The medical operations that were recorded but never actually occurred included abortions, medical exams for dead people, and others in which patients never showed up at hospitals, the report said.