Uzans resign and refuse to pay Telsim fine

The Uzan family, controlling stakeholders in Turkey’s number two mobile operator Telsim, have stepped down from the cellco’s board and publicly declared that they will not pay the USD4.3 billion in damages ordered by a US district court for defrauding mobile vendors Nokia and Motorola. According to local media reports Hakan Uzan claimed the court decision was made by ‘a biased judge who has neglected to look at this case’. Both Hakan and his politician brother Cem resigned from the Telsim board yesterday, citing both the court ruling and a perceived vendetta by the Turkish government as motivation.