Turkish authorities have arrested 45 people as part of an investigation into a scandal involving investment funds. The news emerged as the finance minister denied reports that he had resigned.
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Turkish Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said in a post on X that legal proceedings had been initiated against 76 suspects, 45 of whom had been arrested.
According to Gurlek, the authorities seized the assets of the fund owners and the individuals under investigation who held management positions. Meanwhile, the assets of their close family members were frozen.
Turkish media reported that Erkan Kilimci, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank, was among those arrested.
The prosecutors’ investigation concerns the activities of 131 investment funds owned by seven companies. According to estimates by Turkish media, the assets of these companies have a total value of more than 826 billion Turkish lira, or around 15 million euros.
The Turkish Capital Markets Board (SPK) placed all of these companies into liquidation on September 17. According to the authority, the funds managed the assets of more than 455,000 private investors.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek responded last night to reports of his departure, describing them as “baseless.”
“Such speculation, which targets our country’s economic stability, should not be taken seriously,” Simsek said in a post on X.
The issue began to grow after the SPK published new guidelines on August 28, requiring funds not to concentrate all their investments in a single stock and to diversify their portfolios.
To comply with the new rules, the funds began selling shares, while investors started withdrawing their money. Subsequently, some of the funds said they could not convert their assets into cash quickly enough.
The investigation includes allegations of organized crime, government fraud, violations of financial market legislation and tax evasion.
However, questions are also mounting over why regulators did not intervene sooner in the situation.
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