In previous articles, we outlined how the French tire manufacturer Michelin, through its Turkish distributor, represented by the Turkish holding TATKO T.A.S. and its Kazakh subsidiary “KAZ T-REMA International,” has been successfully supplying Michelin tires to Russia while circumventing sanctions.

Our investigation uncovered several methods by which Michelin, together with its Turkish partner TATKO T.A.S. (TATKO LASTIK SANAYI VE TICARET A.S.) and its affiliate “DTO TYRE FZCO,” has been bypassing these restrictions.

One of the more recent sanction-evasion tactics involves TATKO T.A.S. purchasing tires from Michelin and then reselling them to “DTO TYRE FZCO,” which in turn directly supplies the tires to Russia and Kazakhstan through Latvia. The Latvian company “ESTMA,” acting on behalf of “DTO TYRE FZCO,” handles the shipments of Michelin tires to Russia, skirting sanctions, and also sends them to Kazakhstan to “KAZ T-REMA International” for further export to Russia.

In our reports, we presented evidence and submitted inquiries to Michelin and TATKO T.A.S. (TATKO LASTIK SANAYI VE TICARET A.S.), but all of our requests were ignored.

This raises the question: how does a major European company, in defiance of sanctions, continue to supply Michelin products to  Russia via its Turkish distributor TATKO T.A.S.? We believe we are close to answering this, as we suspect that Michelin’s current vice president, Manuel Montana, who led Michelin’s Turkish office from August 2016 to February 2019, established strong relations with the CEO of TATKO T.A.S., Vedat Ozcelik.

Another sign of the close relationship between Michelin vice president Manuel Montana and TATKO T.A.S. CEO Vedat Ozcelik is that Manuel Montana has been persistently recommending that major clients purchase tires exclusively through TATKO T.A.S. (TATKO LASTIK SANAYI VE TICARET A.S.).