Melis Sandal's Lawyer Denies Money Was Moved to Dubai
The attorney for Mustafa Sandal's wife rejects claims that more than 11 billion lira was withdrawn from funds and says every transaction can be verified.
The lawyer for Melis Sandal, wife of Turkish singer Mustafa Sandal, has rejected claims that more than 11 billion Turkish lira was withdrawn from investment funds and moved to Dubai. He spoke out after his client ended up at the center of an investigation into how the funds were run, Mondo and Informer report.
Informer says an arrest warrant was issued and a wanted notice was put out for Melis Sandal as part of that investigation. In an earlier article we reported that the investigation now cites 15.793 billion lira. The case is closely followed in Turkey, and her lawyer has now stepped forward, claiming that documentation will show the path the money took.
What does the lawyer say about the 11 billion lira?
According to her legal representative, the figure circulating in the media does not reflect the real value of his client’s investments and money movements. He says all of her financial transactions can be checked through bank and brokerage records, which should show where the money came from and where it ended up.
He also flatly rejected the claim that billions were transferred to Dubai or to any other country. Serbian sources do not name the lawyer.
The sources disagree on one detail. Mondo writes about more than 11 billion lira, which is also the figure in the rest of Informer’s article, while one paragraph in Informer mentions 11 million. This article uses the billion figure because it appears in both sources.
Why does Melis Sandal live in Dubai?
Her legal team says her stay in Dubai has nothing to do with the investigation or with any alleged removal of money from the country. In their version, she has lived there for some time because of her child’s schooling.
Certain payments made abroad, the lawyer says, were installments under a contract for buying real estate. With that, he tried to shut down speculation linking her move to Dubai with the billions at issue in the case.
What did Mustafa Sandal say earlier?
The singer has already commented on the case in which his wife is named. He said that, apart from their marriage, the two have no joint business and no financial partnership. Informer adds that both Mustafa and Melis rejected the accusations right away.
Everything reported here about the money, the payments and the stay in Dubai comes from the lawyer’s claims. Serbian sources do not cite any document that would confirm or refute them, and the investigation in Turkey is still under way.
