Akfinans Bank “are prepared to ignore the law when it suits them”

WITHOUT PREJUDICE: I have been turning my mind to the overuse of Writs in North Cyprus. I am a little uneasy to hear that these are used more as a weapon than a legal remedy. It smacks of small minded people using the law to silence their critics. Now if Akfinans Bank had a legitimate reason to silence the press, then certainly this would be a correct use of the law. But it seems to me as an outsider that the Bank has much it does not want the ordinary man and woman on the street to know and will go to any lengths to stop them knowing it.

I was amazed that the Press at the first mention of Law 39/2001 took refuge behind their sandbags when threatened instead of telling Akfinans Bank Limited to grow up and start behaving like a real Bank. To allow Akfinans Bank to intimidate them with threats and the issuing of these Writs speaks volumes for the cowardice of the press who, instead of demonstrating their contempt for these intimidatory practises, caved in and kowtowed to one Bank.

Akfinans up until the 7th of April 1997 was not a Bank, it was more a money lending institution, so in fact has only a 15 year track record in the Banking industry. Not long when you consider some of the European Banks have been existence for over 150 years. It appears to have 16 shareholders, one of the shareholders holding the largest number of shares appears to be a Limited Company, Adem Kader Limited, which has 2 950 230 shares and on closer examination the shareholders within this company are much the same as those in Akfinans Bank Limited, mainly family members. There are 7 Directors and one of the Directors doubles as Company Secretary. Mr Ersin Tatar is not shown as a Director but Hasan Hasipoglu still is shown as a Director of the Bank, according to the figures I have obtained:

Authorized Capital : 12,000,000,000000 TL

Issued Capital : 6,265.666,000000 TL

Paid up Capital : 6,265,666,000000 TL

So far so good, so why if it is as healthy as it looks on paper, are the Bank so frightened of publicity? Could it be that the misuse of Bank money in pursuing the Writs which, let’s face it, are not in the Bank’s interest; on paper this Bank can stand on it’s own reputation. If I were a depositor in this bank, I would be alarmed at the way my money was being spent. So is it the family that predominately own the Bank that feel under threat? Is this why another company in the name of the father exists and has so many Bank shares in it?

Well maybe they should be anxious as there is more and more evidence coming to light that points to the fact that they are prepared to ignore the law when it suits them. A Bank cannot break the law, it is just a Bank. People break the law and if you look at the Kulaksiz 5 case, the Terence Bushell and Gary Wadhams cases and now allegedly a third case is emerging in the Girne area where they also put mortgages on peoples villas without the consent or knowledge of the owners and even more damagingly at least one of these properties had a Contract registered at the Tapu, prior to the mortgage. Are there any more to emerge? Remember silence is their friend and your enemy.

Power to the people

Citizen Smith

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