The Anglo Irish Bank has pulled out of a loan deal with one of the most exclusive of New York’s hotels, accepting a discount of $100 million on the loan in order to extricate itself from the deal. The $300 million loan deal connected to Manhattan’s luxury Mark Hotel was sold for just $190 to Dune Real Estate Partners investment firm.

Despite the sale, the heavily indebted hotel remains tangled in a complex legal case with Anglo Irish. Legal proceedings against the bank were brought by developers Izak Senbahar and Simon Elias in early 2011. The developers claim that Anglo Irish breached a $500 million loan deal between them that was supposed to fund the redevelopment of three hotels in Manhattan; the Mark, Flatolel and Alex. They argue that Anglo should not be allowed to sell the loans to a third party, and are demanding $1 billion in damages.

Uğur Terzioğlu, chairman of the Turkish-American Business Association (TABA/AmCham), was officially recognized Saturday with the title of honorary member of the Diplomaten International (DMW e.V.) for his role in facilitating the release of two German journalists who had been detained in Iran for over four months.
 

The two journalists, Marcus Hellwig and Jens Koch were detained by the Iranian government on a slew of serious charges including espionage and attempting to undermine Iranian national security. “I was contacted by DMW managers who were given my name by the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany,” said Terzioğlu at an organization in İstanbul Saturday arranged by the Aspen Institute Italia. “They were told that I was someone who might be able to assist in negotiating the release of the journalists.” “The two journalists did nothing wrong,” said Mr. Terzioğlu, who was able to learn through connections that the journalists had been charged with entering the country with tourist visas and not journalistic visas. “They probably would have spent nine months or more in prison pending trial had their release not been negotiated.”

Forbes Turkey magazine has released its "Top 100 Wealthiest Turks" list for 2011. The magazine said that the total fortunes of Turkey’s 100 richest people had increased from last year’s 87 billion USD to 104 billion USD this year. Mehmet Emin Karamehmet, with his fortune reaching 4 billion USD, topped this year’s list. The businessman’s total wealth amounted to 2.9 billion USD in 2010.

Semahat Arsel from Turkey’s leading Koc family, whose fortune has grown to 3 billion USD, and last year’s wealthiest Husnu Ozyegin, chairman of Turkish conglomerate Fiba Holding, shared the second position in the ranking.

Rahmi Koc, with his wealth expanding to 2.9 billion USD, followed them in the Forbes list. Forbes is a privately held publishing and new media company. Its flagship publication is Forbes, a bi-weekly magazine, with a circulation of over 900,000.

Turkish American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TACCI) held its annual gala last night at the NY Athletic Club with the attendance of more than 200 people, including Turkish, American and International state dignitaries, top company executives and representatives, TACCI board members and many other guests.

During the evening The Rick Bogart Trio played famous jazz standards and provided an elegant New York ambiance. The emcee of the night was, TACCI board member and attorney Mr. Mark Meirowitz who also shared the stage with TACCI President Celal Secilmis during the awards ceremony. Several important people for TACCI were presented award plaques including Ertugrul Apakan,  Mehmet Samsar, Cenk Uygur, Sevil Özisik, Mustafa Merc, Ali Cinar, Dr. Kayhan Civelek, Engin Tuncer,  Ihsan Baytan of THY New York and Joseph F. Reagan. All guests who received the awards gave a speech about the evening and they praised TACCI members for their efforts in helping and guiding the companies to increase and foster bilateral trade and investment opportunities between U.S. and Turkey.