{"id":7642,"date":"2012-03-12T15:14:40","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T15:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=7642"},"modified":"2012-03-13T11:41:28","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T11:41:28","slug":"mtnturkcell-talks-break-down-amid-extortion-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/7642\/mtnturkcell-talks-break-down-amid-extortion-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"MTN\/Turkcell talks break down amid extortion claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

SA mobile operator, MTN<\/a> (MTN), has strongly condemned Turkcell\u2019s attempt to use the threat of a US legal claim to extort money from MTN.<\/p>\n

The company also criticised Turkcell\u2019s refusal to cooperate with the independent investigation that MTN has set up, headed by the eminent British supreme court judge, Lord Hoffmann.<\/p>\n

Turkcell had threatened MTN with litigation in the United States, alleging claims of corruption in relation to MTN\u2019s bid to participate in the second mobile phone network in Iran.\u00a0 In 2005, a consortium that included MTN was awarded the licence.<\/p>\n

MTN have appointed Lord Hoffmann to lead an independent investigation of the allegations.\u00a0 Although MTN believes there is no legal merit to Turkcell\u2019s claims, and no basis for a US court to consider them, it had nonetheless sought to obtain Turkcell\u2019s co-operation with the independent investigation.<\/p>\n

MTN says that talks with Turkcell have broken down as a result of its extortionate demands for damages, and its threat to start a frivolous lawsuit in the US.<\/p>\n

MTN added that it is committed to resolving the issue through Lord Hoffmann\u2019s inquiry.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurkcell\u2019s threat to abuse the U.S. legal system to pressure MTN will not succeed,\u201d said an MTN spokesman.\u00a0 \u201cMTN wants Turkcell\u2019s co-operation with the independent investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turkcell\u2019s accusations involve conduct alleged to have taken place in South Africa and Iran, and have no connection to the United States.\u00a0 The US Supreme Court is widely expected to restrict such claims in a case that was argued last week.<\/p>\n

Lord Hoffmann, who was born in South Africa, is widely regarded as the pre-eminent legal figure in the United Kingdom over the last 20 years.<\/p>\n

Related Articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Middle East unrest has had an impact \u2013 MTN CEO<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

MTN mum on Irancell<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

MTN shares off as investors await Turkcell clarity<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

US court jurisdiction questioned in MTN\/TurkCell dispute<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

MTN, TurkCell in talks over bribery lawsuit<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SA mobile operator, MTN (MTN), has strongly condemned Turkcell’s attempt to use the threat of a US legal claim to extort money from the company. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1932,26,1931,28,1292],"class_list":["post-7642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-extortion","tag-headline","tag-lord-hoffmann","tag-mtn","tag-turkcell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7642"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7710,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7642\/revisions\/7710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}