İstanbul prosecutors on Monday launched an investigation into people who shared documents marked confidential from an inquiry into Turkey’s investment fund crisis, amid journalist arrests and restrictions on coverage of the scandal, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said documents concerning the investigation had appeared on social media and other digital platforms. It did not identify those under investigation or specify which documents had been shared.
The fund crisis erupted in mid-September when some funds could not meet investors’ withdrawal requests, triggering a stock market selloff and investigations into suspected market manipulation.
The Capital Markets Board (SPK), Turkey’s securities regulator, ordered the liquidation of 131 funds managed by seven companies. The funds held reported assets of more than 890 billion lira, approximately $18 billion at the time, and the regulator said 455,758 individual investors were affected.
The prosecutors’ announcement follows the jailing of two journalists and house arrest orders for two others over their reporting on alleged political connections to the crisis.
Prosecutors said they had sent instructions and official requests to the SPK, Borsa İstanbul, the Central Securities Depository of Turkey (MKK), the Banks Association of Turkey and other institutions.
“Publicly violating the confidentiality of an investigation constitutes the offense of ‘violation of the confidentiality of an investigation’ under Article 285 of the Turkish Penal Code, and our office has initiated criminal proceedings ex officio against those responsible for these posts,” the prosecutors said.
Article 285 calls for one to three years in prison or a fine for publicly violating investigation confidentiality, subject to conditions set out in the law. It also states that reporting on investigations and trials within lawful news-reporting limits does not constitute an offense.
On Friday an İstanbul court jailed Mustafa Balcı, an editor at the Sözcü newspaper, and Şaban Sevinç, editor-in-chief of the Bizim TV online news channel, pending trial on accusations of publicly disseminating misleading information.
Journalists İsmail Saymaz and Murat Ağırel were put in house arrest on Saturday after prosecutors challenged an earlier decision to release them under judicial supervision.
Their questioning concerned reporting and social media posts about alleged connections between figures in President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and individuals implicated in the fund investigation.
Separately, the Bianet independent news website reported Sunday that an İstanbul court had blocked three articles covering an opposition lawmaker’s questions about political ties to the fund scandal.
Lawmaker Ahmet Şık asked whether officials or their relatives had gained early access to an investment fund run by Tera, one of the companies whose funds are under investigation, and whether investors in the Tera and Pusula funds had withdrawn large sums before ordinary investors found themselves unable to recover their money.
Investment funds pool investors’ money to buy shares and other assets.
Another article covered Şık’s allegation that Justice Minister Akın Gürlek and his wife, a board member of Turkey’s securities regulator, occupied an İstanbul apartment costing about $15,000 a month, with others paying the rent. Gürlek’s lawyer denied the claim, saying the couple lived in government-provided housing and announced criminal and civil action against Şık. The allegations have not been independently established.
Bianet said Turkey’s Cybersecurity Directorate ordered it to remove the reports within four hours but did not provide the court’s reasoning, leaving the grounds for blocking them unclear.
By early October 85 people had been jailed pending trial across the fund investigation and separate stock manipulation cases.
The scandal has also put pressure on the AKP. Former family minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya resigned from the party’s leadership in September following allegations about her stock trades.
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