Pandora Papers show how construction magnate who built Erdoğan's palace evaded tax payments

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• Rönesans Holding built President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's controversial Presidential Complex in 2014. In the same year, the mother of its owner acquired the assets of two offshore companies.

• By the end of 2015, the Ilıcak family had transferred 210 million dollars to the two companies, evading the 40 percent income tax.

• Since then, the holding won 10 public tenders worth of about 1.8 billion dollars. The personal wealth of its owner has more than doubled, exceeding 4 billion dollars.

A construction company that undertook billions of lira worth of public projects in recent years has been evading taxes through offshore accounts, the Pandora Papers have revealed.

Rönesans Holding has been transferring some of its profit from such projects to offshore companies, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which has revealed the documents.

One of the first major projects of the company was the Presidential Complex, which was completed in 2014 amid allegations of irregularities, because of which it was dubbed as the "unlicensed palace."

Also in 2014, Ayşe Ilıcak, the mother of the holding's owner, Erman Ilıcak, became the owner of two offshore companies, said ICIJ. The construction of the complex was still underway when she acquired the assets of the companies.

"Both companies were fronted by nominee directors and nominee shareholders. One of the companies, Covar Trading Ltd., held assets from the family's construction conglomerate, the records say," the ICIJ stated.

"During its first full year in operation, Covar Trading earned 105.5 million dollars in income from dividends, according to confidential financial statements. The money was stashed in a Swiss account.

"That same year, the statements show, the company paid almost the entire 105.5 million dollars as a 'donation' listed under 'extraordinary expenses.' The statements do not describe who or what received the money."

The financial reports of the other company of Ayşe Ilıcak, Dolmine International Ltd., show that 105.2 million dollars were deposited in the company's account in Switzerland's Banque Pictet & Cie.

210 million dollars in tax havens

So, by the end of 2015, Ayşe Ilıcak had transferred 210,7 million dollars to tax havens.

Both companies had no financial activity in 2016 and 2017, according to Deutsche Welle (DW), one of the media organizations that examined the leaked documents.

In the last five years alone, the Rönesans Holding won 10 public tenders worth of about 16 billion lira (~1.8 billion USD).

If the Ilıcak's didn't evade the 40 percent income tax for the 210 million dollars they transferred to offshore companies, they would have paid 750 million lira to the Treasury.

Meanwhile, the personal wealth of Erman Ilıcak has been more than doubled since 2015, increasing from 2.1 billion dollars to 4.4 billion dollars. (PT/VK)