Police on Wednesday detained 26 people, including a former Finance Ministry official and investment fund executives, in an investigation into a multibillion-dollar investment fund scandal in Turkey.
Prosecutors are investigating allegations of widespread market manipulation affecting the savings of about 455,000 individual investors. The scandal emerged just over a month ago when funds could not meet withdrawal requests.
Prosecutors said in a statement carried by Turkish media that they had ordered the detention of 31 people. Police were searching for the remaining five.
Among those still sought was Nusret Altınbaş, owner of the privately held Turkish conglomerate Altınbaş Holding. His brother is already in custody, and the family’s assets have been frozen, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The suspects include 16 executives and employees of portfolio management firms already named in the investigation, including Atlas, Pardus, Hedef, Tera and A1.
It was not immediately clear what offenses the suspects were being investigated for or when they would appear before a court to determine whether they would be jailed pending trial.
The operation came a day after Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said efforts to recover profits from market-disrupting activities would begin with those who made inflation-adjusted gains of at least 10 million lira ($202,000). Legal proceedings would follow if they failed to return the money voluntarily.
Şimşek said everyone who profited had been identified, without specifying how many people were involved or whether they had been detained or questioned.
“Those who made real gains of 10 million lira ($202,000) or more will be approached. If there is no voluntary return, the justice ministry will initiate the relevant legal procedures,” he told Habertürk and Bloomberg HT.
The Justice Ministry said on October 4 that 85 people had been jailed pending trial in connection with the scandal. No updated total was immediately available.
The crisis has raised questions about political connections and regulatory oversight, putting pressure on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Former family minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya resigned from the party’s leadership in September following allegations that she and her husband profited from stock transactions before the crisis. Both deny the allegations.
On Monday, Capital Markets Board (SPK) Chairman Mahmut Sütcü submitted his resignation, citing health problems, after about five months in office. Erdoğan formally removed him through a decree published early Tuesday, days after prosecutors received permission to investigate his predecessor.
Deputy Treasury and Finance Minister Osman Çelik also requested retirement Monday, about two weeks after his son-in-law was jailed pending trial in a related stock manipulation investigation.
© Agence France-Presse
The post Fund executives among 26 detained in Turkey investment scandal probe appeared first on Turkish Minute.