Update on TWO court cases involving allegedly inappropriate Akfinans Bank mortgages

This is another two for the price of one day. The Hearing for Kulaksiz 5 was scheduled to begin at 10.30 a.m. but in fact did not start until 11.47 a.m. Part of the reason for the delay was that Akan Kurşat and Akfinans were tied up in another court, with the similar case you all read about in Afrika Newspaper very recently. The case involving Musfata Kader Developments Limited, and the two British victims Gary Wadhams and Terence Bushell who, like K5, found a mortgage on their properties. The Bank in question was Akfinans Bank Limited.

I met a very shocked Gary Wadhams outside the court. It seems everyone had left the courtroom, leaving him there alone. The reason, the Judge asked his Advocate to leave his court because she was inappropriately dressed. It seems from the report I was given that her top showed a little too much of her. This is hearsay, as I personally did not see the young lady involved. Ever the trier, it is alleged that before leaving Akan Kurşat did ask the Judge to lift the Injunction granted previously. It is also alleged that the Judge refused.

The Kulaksiz 5 -v-Akfinans Bank Limited case started at 11.47 a.m. Mehmet Kader, a Director of Akfinans Bank Limited, was sworn in as a witness for the Bank. Akan Kurşat started the examination of the Bank witness and as you would expect went through all the facts that now seem to be public knowledge; the dates and amount of the mortgage. At 11.57 a.m. there was a knock on the door to the courtroom, apparently the recorder had not been working and so it seemed we may have to start all over again. Fortunately the Judge was able to give a good account of all that went before and both Advocates seemed happy with his summary and so on we went, presumably with the recorder now working efficiently. Mention was made of the fact that the Bank had chased repayments and an account of the history of the debt was given.

It was then Boysan Boyra’s turn to cross examine the witness. Boysan went through the loan again but this time nothing was glossed over. Now you must remember I do not speak Turkish, but the body language alone was telling me that Boysan was scoring some very good points and, dare I say, even a few bull’s eyes. Mehmet Kader was looking decidedly uncomfortable and Akan Kurşat was constantly interrupting the proceedings. You will recall that under cross examination at the previous session Akan Kurşat tried to discredit the claim by Abdurrahman Guney (Kulaksiz Const.) that an expert had been sent to the site at the time of the mortgage. You will recall my telling you that Guney had been asked by Kurşat to name the experts and he could not. Now it seems they freely admit that experts did visit the site at the time of the mortgage.

News to me was the fact that the loan was in fact 83,000 TL and not 100,000 TL as appeared on the Tapu search. When asked for the report from the experts, at first they could not find it, eventually it was produced. It seems that the land value put on at the time by the experts was 300,000TL and since the date the ‘experts’ allegedly valued the land was 11 November 2005, it is an extraordinary valuation figure. You will recall that K5 had already entered into evidence confirmation of completed builds by that time and indeed my own villa was all but complete too and that was one of the last to be completed.Are we being asked to believe that experts visited K5 in November 2005 and found an almost completely built development of 10 bungalows and 3 villas and yet only put on a valuation of just 300,000 TL? Of course this was questioned as indeed was the fact that the ‘experts,’ according to the Bank, allegedly had not reported all this to them.

Boysan was brilliant, he questioned and threw doubt on so much; from the interest rate to the amount of input by the Directors on the mortgage side of the business, which seemed to change from none to a great deal. Boysan pointed out that paragraph 7 on the title deed questionnaire required that even the presence of a tree should have been reported, let alone all those villas. On occasion the Judge made felt his displeasure at the number of unwarranted interruptions by Akan Kurşat. At one stage Mehmet Kader started to read from a pre-prepared statement. Boysan questioned it and the Judge would not allow it. I think, although I am not sure, some mention of K5 using the press against the Bank was made.

I think it fair to say that Akfinans and their Advocate were squirming, so I was not entirely surprised when Akan Kurşat made a distressed gesture and apparently said he needed air. At this point, about 1.15 p.m, the Judge adjourned proceedings. The next date is 30th June at 10.30 am; perilously close to the summer recess.

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