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Tag: Turkish minister

  • Turkey jails former minister in investment fund scandal

    Turkey jails former minister in investment fund scandal

    A former Turkish minister and senior ruling party official was jailed pending trial Friday as part of an investigation into a multibillion-dollar investment fund scandal, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

    An İstanbul court ordered Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya jailed on charges of violating capital markets law and belonging to a criminal organization, the agency said.

    Kaya served as family minister from 2016 to 2018 and until recently was a deputy chair of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

    She stepped down on September 26 following allegations by the main opposition New Party that she had profited from an investment scandal that had emerged earlier that month.

    A New Party lawmaker sought clarification over allegations that she and her husband had made millions through share transactions before the scandal broke, raising questions about insider trading.

    She later left the ruling party.

    The scandal erupted in mid-September, prompting an investigation into allegations of market manipulation affecting the savings of nearly 500,000 investors.

    Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced Tuesday that 112 people had been jailed pending trial in the investigation, adding that investigators had uncovered a “comprehensive criminal network” that infiltrated the highest levels of Turkey’s financial markets.

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Opposition links Turkish minister’s father to $17 million fund transactions

    Opposition links Turkish minister’s father to $17 million fund transactions

    AKP’s Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş faced calls Thursday to explain alleged fund transactions worth 830 million lira ($17 million) carried out in her father’s name, as an opposition lawmaker challenged government figures’ connections to the country’s investment fund scandal.

    Ümit Özlale, a lawmaker from the main opposition New Party, asked at a press conference whether her father, Hasan Özdemir, had traded in two funds caught up in the crisis.

    Özlale cited transaction reference numbers and maintained that he had documents supporting his allegations.

    His questions followed a parliamentary speech Wednesday in which he asked whether an unnamed minister had invested through a father’s account, turning 470 million lira ($9.5 million) into 830 million lira before withdrawing the money ahead of the crisis.

    Göktaş denied the allegations Thursday, declaring that neither she nor any family member had an account or conducted transactions in the funds concerned.

    She maintained that the investor was a different person with the same name as her father, citing different identification numbers, and pledged to resign if the allegations were proven, Gazete Pencere reported.

    Özlale argued that investments by ministers were not themselves crimes but demanded disclosure of any transactions benefiting from privileged treatment or information obtained through public office.

    The crisis began in September when funds could not meet withdrawal requests as share prices fell, prompting investigations into market manipulation.

    The Capital Markets Board (SPK), Turkey’s securities regulator, ordered 131 funds managed by seven companies to be closed and their assets sold to repay 455,758 investors.