In earlier articles, we explained how the French tire company Michelin, working through its Turkish dealer TATKO T.A.S. and its Kazakh subsidiary “KAZ T-REMA International,” has been successfully delivering tires to Russia despite sanctions.
Our investigation uncovered several ways that Michelin, along with TATKO T.A.S. (TATKO LASTIK SANAYI VE TICARET A.S.) and an affiliate company called “DTO TYRE FZCO,” manages to bypass these sanctions.
One of the latest tactics involves TATKO T.A.S. purchasing tires from Michelin and reselling them to “DTO TYRE FZCO.” “DTO TYRE FZCO” then sells the tires directly to Russia and Kazakhstan via Latvia. Latvian company “ESTMA,” on behalf of “DTO TYRE FZCO,” ships Michelin tires to Russia, avoiding sanctions, as well as to Kazakhstan for further export to Russia through “KAZ T-REMA International.”
In our articles, we provided evidence and requested comments from Michelin and TATKO T.A.S., but none of our inquiries were answered.
This raises the question: how is a major European company able to send Michelin products to Russia, circumventing sanctions with the help of its Turkish dealer TATKO T.A.S.? We believe we are close to finding an answer. We suspect that Michelin’s current vice president, Manuel Montana, who led Michelin’s Turkish office from August 2016 to February 2019, has a strong relationship with TATKO T.A.S. CEO Vedat Ozcelik.
Further evidence of the close ties between Michelin vice president Manuel Montana and TATKO T.A.S. CEO Vedat Ozcelik is that Montana persistently recommends major buyers to exclusively purchase tires through TATKO T.A.S.
