Terrorism and Criminal Organisation Accusations
The claim that a 3-million-lira racket was run with fake receipts
Unfounded
Claim
Fact
The claim went into circulation about a month after the operation of 30 January 2018, on 27 February 2018, by way of a news agency: it was written that members of the Furkan Foundation had collected more than 3 million lira in unrecorded money with fake receipts they had printed themselves.
The receipts exist. Donations made to the foundation were taken against official receipts, and these receipts were seized by the police in the search of 30 January. That is to say, the documents the claim says do not exist were in the hands of those who built the claim.
The receipt copies left with the people who made donations were also submitted to the court at the first hearing. Even so, the indictment was written as if there were no receipts at all; neither the seized receipts nor the examples submitted by the lawyers were examined for months.
The figure did not stay in place either. On 31 January 2018 it was written that 350,000 lira had come out of the foundation's safe, on 27 February the same matter became 3 million, and in May the figure of 80 million began to be spoken of. Three separate figures for a single safe show that there is no counted sum.
Finally: there was a confidentiality order on the file. While the foundation's lawyers could obtain no information about the investigation, photographs of the safe were published in the newspapers. The information was leaked from somewhere, and no one was held to account for it.
The day the story appeared
After the operation of 30 January 2018, when the terrorism accusation failed to hold, the debate shifted to the heading of money. The report published on the morning of 27 February 2018 stated that, in the search carried out within the scope of the investigation, it had been established that more than 3 million lira in unrecorded aid had been collected with fake receipts printed by the suspects.
Where are the receipts?
Under its founding deed the foundation holds the authority to collect donations, and it issues receipts for the donations it receives. What became of the receipts is plain from the case file:
- In the search of 30 January 2018 the police seized the receipts in the foundation building.
- Examples of the copies left with the people who made donations were submitted to the court at the first hearing.
- The indictment was nonetheless drawn up as if there were no receipts.
- Neither the seized receipts nor the photocopies submitted by the lawyers were examined for months.
In order to be able to say that a document is fake, that document must first be examined. No such examination was carried out in the case file.
Why does the figure grow?
The weakest point of the claim is its own figure. Three separate sums were spoken of for the same safe and the same investigation:
| Date | Sum written in the media |
|---|---|
| 31 January 2018 | 350,000 lira |
| 27 February 2018 | 3 million lira |
| May 2018 | 80 million lira |
If counted money were at issue, the figure would not change. That it changes shows that the sum derives not from evidence but from need.
The foundation's money is in the foundation's safe
In the reports, money coming out of the safe was presented as an offence in itself. Yet foundations and associations stand on donations; collecting donations and holding charity bazaars are listed as sources of income in the Furkan Foundation's founding deed. The money collected is spent on scholarships, conferences and aid campaigns; those who attend the events are charged no separate fee.
The money here came out of no one's home and no one's personal account. For money belonging to the foundation's budget to be in the foundation's safe is not out of the ordinary; it is the ordinary thing. That most of the foundation's buildings are rented also shows that the picture here is not the picture of a racket.
What does it take to say "fake"?
The word this page is about is "fake", and on its own it is a heavy claim. For a receipt to be counted as fake, either the one who printed it must be unauthorised or the sum written on it must not reflect the truth. Neither was shown. Under its founding deed the foundation holds the authority to collect donations and to enter them into the record; and to be able to say that the sums on the receipts do not match reality, the receipts would have had to be compared with the donors' statements. There is no such comparison in the file.
What is more, the "fake receipt" claim is odd in itself. Someone who wants to collect unrecorded money issues no receipt at all; printing receipts is the way to leave a record, not to do away with one. The claim treats the act of leaving a document behind as evidence of the offence of concealing documents.
The fraud accusation in the same file — the absence of a victim, the MASAK report and the contradiction in the indictment showing the expenses as low — has been dealt with under a separate heading: the fraud claim.
A file under a confidentiality order, open newspaper pages
There was a confidentiality order in the investigation. While the foundation's lawyers could not reach the file, the photographs of the safe taken in the search and the alleged sums were published in the newspapers. Foundation officials reported this situation in those very days both to the police and to the prosecutor's office; in the 2018–2019 records we hold there is no information that any action was taken regarding the source of the leak.
The dates on this page belong to the process opened by the operation of 30 January 2018. The organisation part of the same file has been dealt with under a separate heading: the claim that the Furkan Foundation is a criminal organisation.