Kurum gave credit to himself! The scheme of how the Turkish company avoided taxes through suspicious bankruptcy

At the end of September, it is expected that 100 containers with toxic substances will be parked in the Port of Durrës as fish tanks of the Kurum company. It will be up to the Albanian authorities whether or not they will accept these wastes from the metallurgical plant of Elbasan, which the Turkish company that has been operating in Albania for years allegedly deceived by declaring them as iron oxide.

The scandal will put the Kurum company on a new collision course with the Albanian state, after the arbitration won by Albania regarding the cancellation of the container concession in 2017.

The extent of this collision remains to be seen, if it will lead to the expulsion of the company from all sectors where it has spread its tentacles in the Albanian economy, or if the state will once again turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to this scandal.

Since the start of its activity in Albania, when Fatos Nano gave the Elbasan metallurgical combine, the Turkish company has had a complicated relationship with the Albanian state. It has been found in at least 3 cases in violation of the concession contract.

The company has either not carried out at all, or has carried out with years of delay the investments that originate as an obligation from the contract with the Albanian state. But every time it was caught in violation by state authorities, Kurum blackmailed through work stoppages and putting hundreds of employees on the streets, as in the last case, when it announced the suspension of contracts for over 500 workers.

The reason given by the company to its employees after the closure of the steel melting and rolling department is the high cost of electricity. But, more than a valid reason, it is an alibi to use the mechanism of blackmail against the Albanian state, as Kurum also owns four hydropower plants in Albania, which cover and exceed the energy needs of the plant.

But the biggest scandal that has remained uninvestigated by the Albanian authorities is the company's bankruptcy in 2016. All the legal actions and stock transactions that followed after Kurum filed for bankruptcy in court suggest that it was all a scheme to avoid taxes.

Why? Doubts first arise from the annual financial balances that the company itself has submitted to the Albanian authorities. In 2013, according to the balance sheets filed by Kurum, the company had a profit of 20 million euros, while in 2014, it declared a profit ten times less, about 2 million euros.

The maneuver raises doubts that the bankruptcy, along with the accompanying balance sheets, may have been false, because shortly before Kurum declared bankruptcy in Albania, the Serbian company Novometal entered the market of gathering and processing iron and steel through its branch in our country , Albametal.

According to the historical extract filed in the KKB, Albametal was established on October 1, 2014 with its head office and main activity in Elbasan. The owner of its parent company, according to the register of beneficial owners, is the Turkish citizen, Cagatay Uraz, a relative of Hasmet Bedii Kurum and his family that owns the company in Albania.

Doubts about a real scheme to avoid taxes are increased by the fact that Cagatay Uraz agrees to lend 25 million euros to Kurumi, even though the latter had declared bankruptcy. The question that arises and should be investigated by the Albanian authorities is who is that individual, or what is that company and institution that finances a bankrupt company with 25 million euros?

The answer to this question can lead to the logical answer that in reality Kurum never went bankrupt, but used the power of the Albanian institutions, (perhaps even by corrupting entire segments of the state) to avoid millions of euros in taxes, since according to the court's decision in connection with the bankruptcy, Kurumi was allowed to continue the activity but until it settles all the obligations it has to third actors, including here, Albametal.

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