Erdoğan’s voice recordings with son gets 2 mln viewers on YouTube

A video showing five alleged conversations between Erdoğan and his son was uploaded on YouTube on Monday night and shortly after it went viral on social media websites. The video was duplicated by many YouTube users who re-uploaded the video in the event that government officials demanded it be removed from the site.

In the recording, Erdoğan and his son Bilal allegedly discuss during five wiretapped phone conversations plans of how to hide huge sums of cash on the day when police raided a number of locations as part of a corruption investigation that has implicated the sons of three Turkish ministers, businessmen and the chief of a state bank.

The voice recording is the latest in a series of leaked phone conversations of embattled Erdoğan, who has portrayed a graft investigation that erupted on Dec. 17 involving ministers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) as a plot to overthrow his government.

In the voice recording, Erdoğan seems to be warning his son Bilal about cash stashed in several houses. It was not possible to decipher from conversations how much money is involved or in how many houses, but an introductory note at the beginning of the video says the plan involves at least $1 billion cash stashed in five houses.

The conversation allegedly took place on Dec. 17, when prosecutors ordered police to raid dozens of addresses to collect evidence. Dozens of suspects were arrested, including an Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab and the chief of state bank Halkbank, Süleyman Aslan. Some of the suspects were later released.

At the beginning of the phone conversation, the prime minister apparently briefs his son Bilal about the raid and asks him to “zero” the amount stashed at houses of several people.

In the second phone conversation, Bilal Erdoğan is apparently heard telling his father that they decided to distribute money to several businessmen whom they owe and “melt” a significant part of it by paying for different projects. Some of the businessmen mentioned during the phone conversations include Faruk Kalyoncu and Mehmet Gür. Erdoğan reportedly approves their plan and reiterates that it is “better if they completely zero the money.”

source: todayszaman