Allegations Regarding the Managers of Our Bank

Allegations Regarding the Managers of Our Bank

We have been informed that an indictment has been prepared against Petrol Ofisi A.Ş. (POAŞ) board members that served between 2001 and 2007, a period which includes the 2001-2005 period when our Bank was a shareholder in POAŞ, as well as some senior managers, regarding some of the fuel import transactions of POAŞ; and the said indictment has been filed with the competent court.

The indictment includes allegations against our Chairman, and some senior managers, who served in POAŞ as board members during the period in which our Bank was a shareholder in the company.

In the indictment, it is briefly stated that,

- the value of imported fuel has been understated with the purpose of tax evasion and this leads to a tax loss in 56 declarations. The total amount of value understatement is expressed to be 6.3 million USD,

- the company acted with the intention of tax evasion,

- unlawful profits have been made due to the import transactions that were conducted with the wholly-owned subsidiary of POAŞ which was dealing with fuel procurement activities in full compliance with the relevant regulations,

- the board members are responsible "in the scope of violation of regulations", based on the presumption that such transactions cannot be carried out without the knowledge of the board members,

and the indictment has been forwarded for judicial process.

As the alleged transactions of POAŞ are reviewed and evaluated, it will be seen that,

- the import transactions were carried out under the relevant legislation by expert company personnel, consultants and service companies,

- the alleged import transactions were exempt of customs duty; since there is no tax loss, it is not possible to define the transactions within the context of tax evasion or as an intention to evade tax,

- it is not possible to qualify any transactions of POAŞ with its wholly-owned and fully consolidated subsidiary as an unlawful fund transfer from one company to another company,

- The Board of Directors, which is defined in the Turkish Commercial Law and related legislation, carried out its activities as a legal body in accordance with the related laws, and activities of the Board of Directors that were conducted in compliance with the laws and regulations are not possible to be defined as activities of an unlawful organisation.

Therefore, we would like to share with the public that, we are strongly confident that the judicial process will prove that there is no legal ground of allegations regarding the Bank's Chairman and managers, and necessary legal actions will be taken to protect the legal rights of our Bank, our Chairman and our managers.