Turkey says fund scandal tied to criminal network

Turkey's justice minister said on Tuesday that a multi-billion-dollar investment fund scandal involved a "comprehensive criminal organisation" that had reached senior levels of the country's financial markets.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek told private channel NTV that investigators were looking at 433 suspects in a probe that began in mid-September into alleged market manipulation affecting the savings of nearly half a million investors.

Gurlek said 112 suspects had been jailed pending trial, 186 had been granted conditional release and 38 others were still being sought. He said the alleged network used bribery to weaken oversight mechanisms and sought to manipulate shares and draw liquidity from the market.

The comments came days after police detained Korkmaz Enes Ergun, head of the Borsa Istanbul stock exchange, on suspicion of membership in an organisation established to commit crimes and accepting bribes, according to Anadolu state news agency.

Gurlek said authorities had collected about 30 billion lira, or $600 million, in cash, real estate and shares, and would pursue money transferred abroad. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office said on X that payments totalling 97.3 billion lira had been made to nearly 250,000 investors by October 30.

The scandal has put pressure on Erdogan's ruling AKP. A senior AKP figure resigned after allegations about her investment activities. The head of Turkey's SPK capital markets regulator was also removed by presidential decree after prosecutors began investigating his predecessor, and the deputy finance minister resigned after his son-in-law was jailed pending trial in the case.