A Turkish businessman wanted for money laundering, wire fraud and disability was extradited from Austria to the United States on Friday, the Justice Department said.
Sezgin Baran Korkmaz was escorted by US Marshals to Utah, where he was charged with allegedly laundering more than $133 million through bank accounts he controlled in Turkey and Luxembourg.
Korkmaz was arrested in Austria in June last year and had been fighting extradition to the United States. He told a Turkish reporter from prison that he would rather be tried at home, where he is also wanted for money laundering and fraud.
According to a US indictment, Korkmaz and co-conspirators were involved in a plot to defraud the US Treasury Department by filing false claims for more than $1 billion in tax credits, allegedly for the production and sale of biodiesel by her company Washakie Renewable Energy LLC.
Jacob and Isaiah Kingston pleaded guilty to federal charges in July 2019 and testified at the 2020 Utah trial against another co-conspirator, Levon Termendzhyan, who was convicted on all charges.
Korkmaz and his co-conspirators allegedly used the proceeds from the scam to purchase luxury real estate, companies such as Biofarma, Turkish airline Borajet, a yacht called Queen Anne, a hotel in Turkey, and a villa and apartment on the Bosphorus in Istanbul to the US authorities.
Working with officials in Lebanon, US Marshals seized the Queen Anne in July 2021 and sold her for $10.11 million.
The Justice Ministry said Korkmaz faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for any count of money laundering conspiracy, wire fraud and obstruction of an official process.
The United States had insisted on his extradition from Austria because Ankara was unlikely to extradite him if he had been sent back to Turkey.
A large part of the reason lies in Washington’s refusal to extradite a US-based Turkish cleric who President Recep Tayyip Erdogan believes plotted a failed coup against him in 2016.
According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Korkmaz played a role in Ankara’s efforts to ingratiate itself with President Donald Trump in his early years in the White House.
The investigative group also claimed Korkmaz facilitated a trip in 2018 for Trump-affiliated Americans trying to secure the release of imprisoned US pastor Andrew Brunson from Turkey.
The pastor’s fate became a major issue for Trump, who kept him at the forefront of US-Turkish relations until Brunson’s final release in late 2018.
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