An unusual growth of revenue has been observed for the Gülenist terrorist organization (FETÖ) compound, located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, on the basis of tax exempt declarations submitted by the terror group.
The figures provided by tax exempt declarations submitted to U.S. authorities show a rapid increase of income for the U.S. based FETÖ, starting with the year of 2013, as reported by Anadolu Agency.
The FETÖ terrorist organization has its headquarters, the Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center (GGWRC) in Pennsylvania's Saylsburg, since its leader Fetullah Gülen moved to the United States in 1999. The organization is listed as a non-profit organization, which means that it is exempt from taxes, but has to declare its assets and total income every year by submitting a relevant form to the Internal Revenue Service (IRT).
The GGWRC, a strictly guarded compound of about 10 hectares, declared a revenue of $914.376 for 2013, $1.587.495 for 2014 and $5.263.435 for the year of 2015. The significant increase was not accompanied by a similar growth of expenditures, which went up only slightly from $929.378 in 2014 to $970.903 in 2015. According to the tax exempt declarations, the total assets of the GGWRC amount to $6.211.949.
The increase in revenue comes at the same time that some FETÖ executives fled Turkey in order to escape court cases opened against them. The key names indicated on the tax exempt forms point to an actual link between developments in Turkey and the organization's rise of revenue in the U.S. Next to Joseph A. Polat as an authorized person and Hüseyin Çopur as president, a person named Sezai Sablak is given as vice president on the form.
Sablak has several charges against him, including "Membership of an armed terrorist organization" and "Resistance to the Law against the Prevention of the Financing of Terrorism" in Turkey. He is also known in the U.S. to be active on behalf of companies operating in various branches. GGWRC's vice president seems to be involved in a rather nontransparent network of companies and firms, some of which apparently have the same phone numbers as the GGWRC.