ONUR SIMSEK

Caution

Onur Simsek, a Turkish national believed to be residing in Turkey, is wanted for his alleged involvement in a defense procurement fraud scheme to win contracts to supply critical military components to the Department of Defense. From April of 2019 to February of 2022, Simsek and others allegedly used a front company to obtain these components which were intended for use in Navy Nimitz and Ford Class Aircraft Carriers, Navy Submarines, Marine Corps Armored Vehicles, and Army M-60 Series Tank and Abrahams Battle Tanks, among other weapons systems.

To obtain the government contracts, Simsek and others allegedly falsely represented to the United States government and United States military contractors that the company was a vetted and qualified manufacturer of military components. However, the parts were manufactured in Turkey, shipped to the United States, and repackaged to remove any reference to their Turkish origin. The conspirators then allegedly lied about the origin of the parts to the United States government and government contractor to receive payment for the parts. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were allegedly laundered back to Turkey through international wire transfers. Once the scheme was discovered, the parts were tested and found to not conform with product specifications. Many of the components supplied to the military were “critical application items,” meaning that failure of these components would have potentially rendered the end system inoperable.

On October 25, 2023, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Simsek in the United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, Tampa, Florida, after he was charged with Conspiracy to Defraud the U.S. Government, Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud, Wire Fraud, Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering, Money Laundering, Conspiracy to Commit Export Control Violations, and Violation of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018.