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The Turkish government is planning to introduce tougher punishments for market fraud than originally proposed, including penalties for those who benefit from manipulation without directly engaging in it, according to people familiar with the matter speaking to Bloomberg.
"A draft law has been revised to introduce penalties against individuals who don't engage directly in but still benefit from market manipulation," the people said, asking not to be named because the deliberations aren't public.
The punishments will also apply to people or firms under "reasonable suspicion" of fraud—including for activities related to investment funds—based on reports by the Capital Markets Board, Türkiye's financial regulatory body.
"Other new provisions include boosting fines that violators can pay to avoid some prosecutions from a fixed ₺500,000 ($11,403) to double whatever amount they gained from their fraudulent activities," the people said.
Bloomberg reported in November 2025 that the draft law proposes increasing prison time for market fraud from the current three-year term to five years. "Such sentences won't be eligible for deferral," the people said.
The draft law—which could still be changed or abandoned—is expected to be sent to the Turkish parliament in the weeks ahead.
The revision process began last year when some Turkish investment funds delivered unusually high returns, raising suspicions of market manipulation.
Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said in November that the government was aware of manipulation in some investment funds and would make efforts to strengthen the regulatory framework.
Capital Markets Board Chairman Omer Gonul said in December that the regulatory agency would prevent the "ill-mannered" use of investment funds but did not provide any names.
Separately, the Trade Ministry announced it has inspected 48,122 firms and 5.7 million products since the beginning of the year, applying ₺506 million ($11.5 million) in administrative fines for violations.
"Inspections continue unabated against any act that would disrupt citizens' economic welfare and negatively affect the stable course in the domestic market," the ministry said in a statement.
During this period, 29,626 firms in the food retail sector were inspected by provincial trade directorates, resulting in 20,079 violations and ₺80 million ($1.82 million) in fines.
In Istanbul, approximately ₺43 million ($981,045) in fines were issued for 10,847 products found in violation. Ankara inspected 1.36 million products, Istanbul inspected 885,734 and Antalya inspected 995,882 products.
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