TIP MP Şık: Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office Sought Asset Freeze on Pacific Holding Partners

TIP Istanbul MP Ahmet Şık alleged that the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office, as part of a capital markets investigation, sent a directive to 13 institutions requesting asset freeze measures against Pacific Holding Board Chairman Fatih Erdoğan, Mehmet Erdoğan, and Abdülkerim Fırat. Şık based his claim on a document he shared on social media.

According to the document Şık shared, asset freeze measures were requested against transactions by the three individuals that could reduce their wealth, including transfers, sales, donations, mortgages, pledges, account closures, large cash withdrawals, and money transfers. Fatih Erdoğan is the spouse of AK Party Ankara MP Asuman Erdoğan.

The directive in question does not mean that the individuals' entire assets have been seized; the shared document also does not contain details about which specific transactions led to the three individuals being included in the investigation.

The fund investigation accelerated in September 2023. On September 17, the Capital Markets Board (CMB) decided to liquidate 131 funds affecting more than 455,000 investors, including Pusula and Tera. Between September 18-22, some fund managers were detained and 51 individuals were issued travel bans; five more people, including Pusula Holding executive Serdar Turhan and Tera Yatırım Holding executive Emre Tezmen, were detained. On September 24, a court order resulted in the seizure of two private jets and a yacht valued at approximately 1.8 billion TL.

On September 26, AK Party Deputy Chairman and former Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya resigned from her position. According to the CMB's September 25 bulletin, those seeking to benefit from active remorse in market fraud cases must pay twice the profit obtained, which cannot be less than 500,000 lira.

There is no official statement yet from the chief prosecutor's office regarding the document in question or the scope of its actions.