Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, Akkuyu, operates under a unique build-own-operate (BOO) model where Russia’s Rosatom is responsible for all aspects, including construction and operation, potentially creating a lack of oversight for Turkish entities.
Corruption in Turkish nuclear power plants is an ongoing concern, particularly regarding the Akkuyu plant, with allegations of lack of transparency and favoritism in contract awards that may benefit associates of President Erdoğan. Reports indicate financial irregularities, including suspicious transfers of funds for the Akkuyu project, and concerns about the opaque bidding processes for energy tenders. While the Russian firm Rosatom has pointed to external factors for wage delays, the issue of financial flow and potential corruption within the project remains a subject of scrutiny.
Allegations suggest that a lack of transparency and corruption in these contract awards may benefit President Erdoğan’s family, business associates, and political allies.
There have been reports of suspicious fund transfers at the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, with Russian entities wiring large sums to a Turkish bank, which were then moved to another Russian company for what were purported to be project-related expenses.
Corruption in Bangladesh and South Africa
Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission said on Monday it had begun an investigation into allegations that former premier Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed and her niece, UK treasury minister Tulip Siddiq, had embezzled $5 billion from the “overpriced $12.65 billion” Rooppur nuclear power plant (NPP).
President Cyril Ramaphosa unswervingly promised to embark on a swift and vigorous economic resuscitation of South Africa. That proposed radical economic transformation has been crippled by energy shortage/crisis across the country, which is often rated as the best economic power in Africa. Corruption that hollowed out Eskom’s coffers under Jacob Zuma’s presidency, lack of plant maintenance and sabotage were blamed for South Africa’s electricity crisis. Credible reports said the government spent $1.6 billion from the budget for diesel purchases alone. Eskom’s colossal debt, still equivalent to $23 billion. It suffers from electricity outages at troubled state utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. and rail and port bottlenecks take their toll, industrialization slowed, while social discontent dominates across the country.
South Africa has had nuclear contract signed with Russia back from 2015 under Jacob Zuma, at the time of his presidency. According to research sources, main reason why the 2015 nuclear power agreement thrown out by the South Africa’s parliament, it was an opaque unilateral deal with Moscow. South African pact with Russia’s Rosatom to build nuclear reactors was deemed unlawful by a High Court in April 2017. The Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute (SAFCEI) and Earthlife Africa-Johannesburg had jointly filed the court application to stop the nuclear program.
Both the Russian government and the administration of Jacob Zuma put pressure on the South African government to force through the deal by attempting to circumvent South Africa’s procurement laws. The Russian government readily offered to build and operate up to eight nuclear power plants at a cost of R1 trillion ($66 billion).
Corruption in the Turkish nuclear power plant project
On February 2 The Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report detailing how billions of dollars flowed among Turkey, Russia and the United States in a complex financial scheme aimed at circumventing Western sanctions on Russia. The investigative piece exposed a network of financial transactions allegedly facilitated by Turkey’s state-owned Ziraat Bank, allowing Russia to evade sanctions imposed after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The revelations sent shockwaves through Ankara. Turkish pro-government media, nearly all controlled by the administration of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, dismissed the report as an “anti-Turkey scandal” and claimed that the United States was targeting Turkish intelligence chief İbrahim Kalın out of jealousy over Turkey’s strategic maneuvers.
Yet the details of the scheme suggest a far deeper and more troubling reality. According to the WSJ investigation, Russian President Vladimir Putin leveraged his relationship with Erdoğan to bypass US and European Union sanctions, funneling billions through Turkey’s financial system. The implications are profound — not just for Turkish democracy but for international security.
A cash pipeline for the Russian warchest
By 2023 Turkey was in the grips of a severe economic crisis, and Erdoğan was facing the most precarious election of his political career. With inflation soaring and foreign investment dwindling, he turned to Putin, his increasingly close ally, for financial support. In return the Kremlin secured strategic advantages that bolstered its economic resilience in the face of Western sanctions.
The deal unfolded in stages according to which Russia deferred a $20 billion natural gas debt owed by Turkey, providing Erdoğan with temporary economic relief ahead of the elections, and Moscow sent $5 billion to finance Turkey’s Russian-built Akkuyu nuclear power plant, a project that remains entirely under Russian ownership. However, American investigators believe these transactions served as a front for a larger sanctions-evasion operation.
The WSJ report details how Russian entities wired $9 billion to an account at Turkey’s Ziraat Bank, ostensibly to fund construction at the Akkuyu nuclear site. The funds were then transferred to another Russian company’s account at the same bank under the guise of project-related expenses. In reality this maneuver created a pool of US dollars accessible to the Russian government despite Western sanctions.
This financial engineering worked until the transactions hit a roadblock: All dollar transfers must ultimately pass through US financial institutions. When Russia’s Ziraat Bank transfers triggered red flags, US authorities stepped in. American prosecutors identified the transactions as a covert attempt by Russia’s central bank to acquire liquid US dollar reserves.
Washington responded quickly. US officials froze $2 billion of Russian funds held in accounts at JPMorgan Chase and sought permission from the White House to seize the money permanently. However, the Biden administration — already managing strained relations with Erdoğan over NATO expansion, Syria and Turkey’s human rights record — opted to put the case on hold to avoid escalating tensions with Ankara.
For now, the fate of the frozen funds remains uncertain, contingent on geopolitical shifts.
Why this matters
Reports like this do not emerge by accident. When intelligence-backed investigations implicate high-level officials in illicit financial dealings, they are often used as leverage in diplomatic negotiations. In this case, the WSJ revelations coincide with heightened tensions between Washington and Ankara over Syria, NATO’s stance on Russia and Iran policy.
It is not the first time Erdoğan has been entangled in a sanctions-evasion scandal. The Halkbank case — another high-profile US legal battle — exposed how Turkey’s state banks facilitated a scheme to help Iran bypass sanctions, laundering $20 billion through fraudulent transactions. The scheme unraveled when Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab was arrested in Miami in 2016. His cooperation with US prosecutors turned the case into a major liability for Erdoğan, who scrambled to suppress its fallout.
The Turkish president reportedly made extensive efforts to secure Zarrab’s release, including hiring US lobbying firms, seeking diplomatic interventions and even enlisting his wife, Emine Erdoğan, to personally appeal to then-vice president Joe Biden’s wife, Jill Biden. At one point Erdoğan’s government issued multiple diplomatic notes to Washington — a rare move — demanding Zarrab’s extradition.
Despite these efforts, the case remained a legal and political time bomb. The Erdoğan government spent millions from public coffers on legal defenses and lobbying efforts to delay Halkbank’s prosecution. Though Turkey managed to stall proceedings ahead of the 2023 elections, the case remains an active liability in US-Turkey relations.
Erdoğan’s financial entanglements
Erdoğan’s financial entanglements extend far beyond the Halkbank case. Other unresolved corruption investigations include allegations involving Iran’s Razi Petrochemical complex, with senior Turkish officials implicated; secret cargo flights and maritime shipments from Venezuela, reportedly carrying illicit funds; and intelligence dossiers on Erdoğan’s role in facilitating the sale of ISIS-controlled oil through Turkey.
More troubling for Erdoğan, reports persist that Putin possesses compromising intelligence on Turkey’s actions during the 2016 coup attempt. This could explain Erdoğan’s unwavering loyalty to Moscow — even at the expense of Turkey’s NATO commitments. The controversial decision to purchase Russian S-400 missile defense systems, despite US sanctions and NATO’s disapproval, may be one outcome of this leverage.
The institutionalized corruption within Erdoğan’s government has turned Turkey into a state vulnerable to international blackmail. The more his administration engages in financial crimes, the greater the risk that foreign powers — including adversaries like Russia and Iran — will use these cases to manipulate Ankara’s policies.
NATO and the Turkish national security crisis
Corruption is not merely an economic or ethical issue — it is a national security threat. When political elites entangle themselves in illicit financial networks, they compromise their country’s sovereignty.
According to Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index, Turkey ranked 115th out of 180 countries, reflecting its deepening governance crisis. In states where corruption becomes institutionalized, criminal networks infiltrate the government, and the government itself takes on mafia-like characteristics. The erosion of democratic institutions follows, leaving the state increasingly fragile and susceptible to both internal collapse and external manipulation.
The WSJ revelations must be viewed through this lens. When national leaders engage in corruption on an international scale, they do not just steal from their own citizens — they make their country a pawn in the hands of foreign powers.
In 2019, after Turkey launched a military operation in northern Syria, the US Congress threatened to investigate Erdoğan’s personal wealth. In response, Erdoğan quickly shifted course and agreed to a ceasefire, revealing just how vulnerable he was to financial pressure.
If history is any indication, Washington will not hesitate to use the latest WSJ revelations as another bargaining chip in its dealings with Ankara. The question is: How much more leverage will foreign powers gain before Turkey’s own institutions hold its leaders accountable?
It is important to note that while allegations and reports of corruption persist, the Turkish government has not always taken legal action when irregularities are discovered, contributing to ongoing concerns about accountability and transparency in the energy sector.
© 2025, GDC. © GDC and www.globaldefensecorp.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to www.globaldefensecorp.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
