New Rixos board member on Interpol wanted list

Hotelier Dr. Cem Kinay, the recently appointed member of the Rixos Hotels management board, is the subject of an Interpol ‘Red Notice’ and is wanted for prosecution by the judicial authorities of the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean and the United Kingdom in relation to bribery allegations.

According to a Caribbean 360 news story published last year, the bribery charges relate to an incident in 2009 when a “confidential donation” of US $500,000 made by Kinay to former Turks and Caicos Island premier Michael Misick shortly before the 2007 election was uncovered during a Commission of Inquiry public hearing.

In a reply to Hotelier Middle East Kinay said: “My former companies were one of the largest investors in TCI (Turks and Caicos Islands) history and I believed that the unique nature of my developments would contribute to the cultural development of the islands. However, the territory’s deteriorating relations with England, political conflict and alleged corruption resulted in the intervention of the British government to the island. The government was dismissed, parliament abolished, and the constitution was suspended. Our investments came to a complete halt and I lost all I had to the funding banks.”

He continued: “The perfectly legal political donation scheme that had existed in the islands for many years has now been turned into a corruption scandal. To prove previous government was guilty, we were chosen as targets.

“I am a victim of politics, I am innocent and I am challenging the current Interpol red notice as it is groundless,” asserted Kinay.

It was on July 9 that Rixos Hotels announced the appointment of Dr. Cem Kinay as the newest member of the group’s management board.

In a statement made following Hotelier Middle East’s enquiries regarding the Interpol Red Notice, a Rixos Hotels spokesperson said: “Dr Kınay has 25 years of successful tourism and real estate investment experience.The unique nature of his developments have contributed to the development of many communities and countries. There have been extraordinary political developments in the countries that he has conducted his business and now he is back in his own country, where we hope that he will contribute to its further development.”

According to Rixos Hotels, it was under Kinay’s leadership that the Austria-based Gulet Touristik and The Hospitality Group Magic Life first introduced the ‘all inclusive concept’ to the European and Turkish hospitality markets in the 1990s. Kinay has since been honoured with a State Medal from the President of Austria in 2006.

According to the Interpol website, Interpol notices are international requests for cooperation or alerts allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information. In the case of ‘Red Notices’, the persons concerned are wanted by national jurisdictions for prosecution or to serve a sentence based on an arrest warrant or court decision.

Interpol's role in this process is to assist the national police forces in identifying and locating these persons with a view to their arrest and extradition or similar lawful action.