A Turkish man who discovered his wife’s affair has helped expose a multimillion-dollar egg donor scam allegedly orchestrated by her, in which clients promised blond babies ended up with Turkish ones. At least 45 people have been arrested so far, including the alleged ringleader, identified only as Hacer T., and three doctors, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported Wednesday.
The criminal network directed Turkish women to sell their eggs to foreign clients through channels spanning Turkey, Albania, Georgia and the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
The Istanbul Police Department’s anti-trafficking branch launched the investigation after Hacer T.’s husband turned her in, having discovered she was having an affair. Her alleged lover, a pharmacist named Muharrem, is accused of supplying the medication used in the egg harvesting procedures.
Among the materials seized was a catalog of potential donors listing their physical attributes, notably height, hair, eye and skin color. Some clients were led to believe they were receiving eggs from ethnic Scandinavian donors when, in fact, the donors were Turkish.
The network involved 41 women who sold their eggs 811 times, Anadolu reported. The organizers allegedly paid them 60–80 euros (about $67–$90) per egg, then resold the eggs to fertility clinics in Georgia, Albania and northern Cyprus.
The clinics in Georgia and Albania reportedly prioritized donors with light-colored eyes and blond hair, the daily Türkiye reported. Fertility clinics in Georgia have also been accused of recruiting numerous Thai women as surrogate mothers, only to use them for repeated egg retrievals.
The BBC reported on a similar case on Aug. 18, saying that 30 children, most of them British, had been conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF) at a clinic in northern Cyprus using the “wrong” sperm or egg donors. Eleven of the 30 had taken commercial DNA tests showing they had “inherited genetic ancestry from Turkey or surrounding countries,” the BBC said.
It remains unclear whether Hacer T. was connected to that clinic, which the BBC identified as the Dogus IVF center. Dogus claimed to source its eggs from the world’s largest donor bank, Denmark-based Cryos International. Cryos, however, had blacklisted Dogus in 2016.
Northern Cyprus is recognized only by Turkey, whose troops occupied the northern third of the island in 1974 to prevent its union with Greece. Its lack of international legal status has made it a haven for unlawful activity, notably money laundering, sex trafficking and illicit finance, according to separate 2025 US State Department reports on human and drug trafficking.
Both Turkey and northern Cyprus draw large numbers of foreigners seeking fertility treatment and cosmetic surgery, including hair transplants, “Hollywood” teeth, Brazilian butt lifts, tummy tucks and breast enhancements, often at far lower prices than in Europe.