Father and son sentenced to 4 years in prison for money smuggling

A father and his son have been sentenced to four years in prison for smuggling large amounts of cash into the country.

The verdict against Selim Tayşi and his son Selim Tayş who are both Turkish Citizens was delivered by a Lefkosia court on Friday.

Ökkeş Tayşi, 28 and his father Selim Tayşi, 60 were arrested in August at Ercan Airport for smuggling suspicious money totaling 3.2 million Euros into the country without declaring it.

Ökkeş Tayşi was found guilty of receiving the money smuggled into the country by his father Selim on three separate occasions.

Announcing the decision, president of the Lefkosia Heavy Penal Court, stated that they found it appropriate to give deterrent sentences to the defendants and sentenced them to 4 years in prison.

The judge explained that the defendants made false statements on the grounds of bringing money to the country, concealed the truth from the police about who owns the money they brought into the country, making sure that the money was not found and eliminating the possibility of gathering confirmation or disproving testimonies about the purpose of bringing the money. 

The judge said “The cases in which the accused is convicted are in violation of Article 7 of the Money and Foreign Exchange Law, and the law in question envisages 1 billion TL and up to 10 years in prison in case of conviction.  

According to the communiqué issued in accordance with the relevant law, it is obligatory to declare the money or equivalent values ​​to be brought to the country over 10,000 Euros to the customs authorities. 

Defendant 1 brought a total of 1,450,000 Euros, while defendant 2 brought 1,750,000 Euros on the various dates they entered the country. While the defendants were bringing these money to the country, they entered the TRNC and delivered these monies to a person in Ercan Airport and left the island, usually on the same day or even on the same plane.  

Again, the defendants either did not make any statement about the money they had with them when they entered the country, or they made a statement to the customs officers that they brought the money with the purpose of "to start a business or to be used for commercial purposes". The defendants never realized their purpose of bringing money, which they declared as "purpose of doing business" or "commercial purpose", and made statements that did not comply with the truth, both in terms of numbers and in terms of the intention to use the money. Thus, the defendants made a false and untrue statement in violation of Article 5 of the communiqué issued under Article 7 of the Money and Exchange Law, and with this act, they were classified as liable, who did not make any statement in accordance with the communiqué.  

When the accused was asked by the police on 06.08.2022 where the money was, he said, "I left it to a friend", and after he was arrested on 07.08.2022, he used the expressions "I cannot tell you where the money is". We see him avoiding it. As a result of these facts, it is clearly seen that this information is hidden from the police and thus an opportunity is created for the person who keeps the money to leave the island.