Turkey’s investigation into alleged investment fund and stock market manipulation has uncovered what Justice Minister Akın Gürlek called a criminal network reaching into senior financial circles. Authorities are examining 433 suspects, with 112 held pending trial, 186 conditionally released and 38 still being sought, Gürlek said Tuesday.
Speaking to NTV, Gürlek alleged that people involved in overseeing financial flows had weakened controls through bribery. He said the group sought to manipulate selected shares, form a cartel and take liquidity from the market. These are allegations under investigation, not findings of guilt by a court.
The probe has focused on alleged wrongdoing linked to investment funds whose problems affected nearly half a million investors. Korkmaz Enes Ergun, head of Borsa Istanbul, was detained on Saturday on suspicion of membership in a criminal organisation and accepting bribes, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. Gürlek also said political figures had links to criminal groups in the fund market, but gave no names.
Authorities report separate recovery and repayment figures
Gürlek said about 30 billion lira in money, real estate and shares had been returned to a voluntary recovery mechanism. He said authorities would continue pursuing assets transferred abroad. Anadolu Agency reported the minister’s figures.
Separately, the Turkish presidency said payments totaling 97.3 billion lira had been made by October 30. A later report by TRT Haber said that amount represented 247,839 payment records across 100 funds; it reported about 76 billion lira in principal returned to 178,537 unique investors. The repayment figures describe a different flow from the assets Gürlek said had been recovered.
Nicole French 
Dana Mcgee