Allegations about earthquake-related aid collected from the Albanian Muslim Community being misappropriated are false

The accusations published on social networks against the Albanian Muslim Community for misappropriation of the funds collected for the earthquake in Turkey turn out to be false. “Faktoje” verified the bank documents proving that the donations went to Turkey and Syria.

Jona Plumbi

The Albanian portal mexhlis.com, a site focused mainly on topics related to Islam, published an article on April 23 accusing the Albanian Muslim Community of misappropriating funds collected for the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. The article was also shared on its Facebook profile getting clicked over 200 times and received comments from various readers.

According to the verification of “Faktoje”, the article is a translation into Albanian of the information previously published by the Turkish agency TRT on April 19. The article is entitled ” How FETO deceived donors and misused earthquake relief funds in Albania “.

* News about the accusation of abuse of earthquake funds published on mexhlis.com

The same news was published by mexhlis.com with the title “ Gulenists of KMSH, receive for their organization 12.8 million euros in donations for the earthquake in Turkey.” ”

The news claims that KMSH has collected more funds than it has declared and that it has appropriated over 12 million euros. According to the article, the money that was not declared to the Albanian state was transferred to the headquarters of FETO, Gulen’s foundation, in Pennsylvania. The article also claims that the Albanian Ministry of Finance has launched an investigation into this case.

*News published in the Turkish agency TRT

Based on the serious accusation, “Faktoje” decided to verify the information with the Albanian Muslim Community (KMSH in Albanian). A web search revealed that KMSH opened three bank accounts in different currencies (ALL, EUR, USD) at Credins bank in Albania to collect the donations.

This shows that the donations were collected through bank accounts opened specifically for this occasion and that the actions were carried out through banks.

Through a request for information addressed to the Albanian Muslim Community, “Faktoje” obtained bank documents that show the money received and the destination where it was sent by KMSH.

These data show that the final bank statement, which “Faktoje” managed to obtain show an amount of 13,788,637 ALL or 120,973 euros. This money was then sent to three different destinations.

The bank documents that “Faktoje” has seen prove that around 121 thousand euros collected as donations for the earthquake in Turkey were sent to three different destinations. Thus, €18,310 was sent to the Iskenderun Mufti in Turkey on March 23, 2023, through the Shkodra Mufti.

The sum of €53,356 was sent to the account of the Turkish Civil Emergency Headquarters (AFAD) on April 26, 2023.  The rest of €50,200 was sent to Syria through the Syrian embassy in Prague on April 27, 2023.

Two transfers were made from the bank account of the Albanian Muslim Community and one of them from the bank account of Shkodra Muftini. Faktoje addressed the Turkish media TRT asking for the basis of such accusations, and is waiting for an answer.

Based on the lack of data or documents that support the accusation raised by TRT in Turkish and by Mejhlis.com in Albanian, and also seeing the bank data of KMSH accounts as well as bank transfers that prove that the collected money has been sent to the destinations promised, it turns out that the news is untrue.

*The news is published as part of the cooperation between Faktoje and Facebook to counter disinformation