An Istanbul court late on Thursday ordered 11 suspects held in pre-trial detention and placed four others under house arrest in the latest phase of Türkiye’s sprawling investment fund investigation, Turkish media reported overnight.
The 15 suspects had been referred to court by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, whose bureau for terrorism financing and money laundering crimes is running the case. Prosecutors had asked for 11 arrests and for judicial control in the form of a ban on leaving home for the other four, as reported here on Thursday evening. The court granted the requests in full, according to Hürriyet and A Haber.
Trading in four Borsa Istanbul shares
This phase focuses on trading in the shares of four companies listed on Borsa Istanbul: Işıklar Enerji ve Yapı Holding (IEYHO), Vişne Madencilik (VSNMD), Odine Solutions (ODINE) and Tera Finansal Yatırımlar Holding (TRHOL). The investigation was opened on the basis of reports from the Capital Markets Board (SPK), Türkiye’s securities regulator.
Detention orders were issued for 31 people. Hürriyet reported that five further suspects, among them a former ruling-party lawmaker, were detained after the initial 26 detentions, and that 16 people were still being processed by police on Friday morning. Detention in Türkiye means questioning in custody and does not imply charges or guilt; all suspects are presumed innocent unless convicted.
Justice Minister Akın Gürlek had earlier put the overall tally of the wider probe at 404 people subject to legal proceedings, 88 of them arrested and 195 under judicial control, a figure A Haber said would be updated after the latest decisions.
SPK targets trading in two more shares
Separately, the SPK said in its weekly bulletin dated 22 October that it would file criminal complaints under Article 107(1) of the Capital Markets Law, the provision on transaction-based market manipulation, over trading in Altınkılıç Gıda (ALKLC) and Anel Elektrik (ANELE) shares. Eight people are named in the ALKLC case and 48 in the ANELE case, NTV reported.
The regulator also imposed two-year trading bans on those named, as well as own-account trading restrictions on several brokerage entities, including Tera Portföy, Tera Yatırım Menkul Değerler and Tera Yatırım Bankası. All licences held by five people in the ALKLC case and 28 in the ANELE case were cancelled for the duration of the bans. Those named have 15 days to use the law’s "effective repentance" route by paying the Treasury at least twice the gain obtained, with a minimum of 500,000 lira.
Why it matters for investors
The probe began in late September and led the SPK to liquidate 131 funds run by seven firms. On Thursday parliament passed a law allowing interim payouts of up to 1 million lira to investors in funds being wound up. The turmoil has weighed on the market, with the BIST 100 falling more than 3% on Thursday. Foreigners holding Turkish savings or investments can find wider context in our cost of living in Türkiye guide.
Sources
- ‘Fon’da yeni operasyon (Hürriyet)
- Fon soruşturmasında yeni gelişme: 11 kişi tutuklandı (A Haber)
- SPK’dan 48 kişi hakkında suç duyurusu kararı (NTV)
Photo: Nicholas Cappello / Unsplash License, via Unsplash
