Canadian Lawyer

22 J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m ince 2015, Canadian lawyer Robert Amsterdam's team has been working for the Turkish government, investi- gating the Gülen movement and its founder Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish imam living in the United States. Gülen, the suspected mastermind behind the attempted 2016 military coup to overthrow the gov- ernment of Turkish President Recep Erdogan, is also the leader of the Hizmet. The movement generates hundreds of millions of dollars running a worldwide network of charter schools, including around 200 in the U.S., and a handful in Canada. Amsterdam and his team have outlined the criminal nature of Gülen's organization in the book Empire of Deceit: An Investi- gation of the Gülen Charter School Network, which was published in September. The book uses public records and interviews to document the movement's threat to the U.S., through "their hidden agendas, their phony real estate practices, their systemic visa fraud violations, their inflated kickbacks, [40 per cent] tithes [and] legal subsidies …" The book details how the movement and its millions of fol- lowers have used complex scams ranging from how they build schools to how they fund uniforms. "Gülen has made a science of screwing the American taxpayer," Amsterdam says. It may seem an odd choice for an international law firm based in the U.S. and London to investigate charter schools. How- ever, for Amsterdam, 61, an international lawyer and founder of Amsterdam & Partners LLP, it was his earlier work on the international stage that led Turkey's government to seek him out specifically to conduct the independent investigation. "I was always international, from boyhood. My sister found a letter that I wrote when I was seven to President [John F.] Ken- nedy suggesting a policy he should follow in Eastern Europe. I mean, I was crazed about Russia, the U.S., the cold war, all of that. I just for some reason found it fascinating and I still do." From a young age, the American-born Canadian was political, and he has fond memories of high school activism. In grade 11, he staged a walkout and shutdown of Woodroffe High School, then a march to and 24-hour protest outside the U.S. Embassy, all to pro- test the American government conducting underground nuclear weapons testing in Amchitka Island, off the southwest coast of mainland Alaska. While it may not have stopped the testing, his protest was given recognition and he and his fellow protesters were invited to meet with the ambassador. In the early 1970s, in the middle of a détente between the U.S. and U.S.S.R., Amsterdam, then only 17, entered the Soviet Union ready for an adventure. He had been living in Ottawa, but as a student of Marx, Lenin, Hegel, Mao and Stalin, the lure of com- munism and the excitement of visiting a place so foreign drew the rebellious teen to the other side of the world. It was on this trip that international and human rights law C R O S S E X A M I N E D Skirting danger abroad Robert Amsterdam's investigation of Turkey's Gülen movement is his latest high-risk international assignment By Kimberley Molina S

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