187 Billion Lira in Suspicious Profits at Centre of Turkish Fund Scandal

Turkish Justice Minister [NAME TO VERIFY — see editorial flag] revealed in a statement on 9 October that three investment fund groups generated profits totalling 187.653 billion lira — characterised by the ministry as illegitimate gains — distributed among 214 individuals and companies.

The crisis traces back to September, when certain investment funds posted exceptional gains in value before investor payments ground to a halt on 15 September. On 17 September, the Capital Markets Authority moved to liquidate 131 funds belonging to seven portfolio management firms. Those funds had held 455,758 investors, with a combined volume approaching one trillion lira.

The scandal has cast a long political shadow through its links to the Justice and Development Party (AKP). It emerged that former Social Affairs Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya and her husband İlyas Kaya realised sales proceeds of 2.17 billion lira on a share investment of approximately 163 million lira. Sayan Kaya resigned as AKP deputy chair on 26 September, immediately after the scandal broke. The couple gave testimony as suspects on 7 October, asserting that they had received no tip-offs or privileged information in connection with their stock trades.

Among the other prominent names under investigation is Mehmet Yarez, 28, chairman of Bousla Portfolio Management, who served in the leadership of the AKP youth branch in Istanbul in 2021. A detention order was issued against him in the course of the probe, and assets totalling 105 million lira were frozen. A report by the financial crimes unit recorded transfers of approximately 2.889 billion lira between his account in Turkey and a bank account in Switzerland; no final figure for his personal gains has been disclosed.

The judicial decisions targeting journalists who reported on the fund scandal have drawn fierce criticism. Reporters Şaban Sevinç and Mustafa Balbay [name to verify] were arrested on 9 October on charges of publicly disseminating misleading information, while on 10 October house-arrest orders were issued against Cumhuriyet columnist Murat Ağırel and journalist İsmail Saymaz. Citizens who spoke to Cumhuriyet TV described what happened as "double standards and blatant injustice," and voiced outright rejection of the prosecution of journalists for doing their jobs.