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Twelve suspects were detained in Türkiye on Tuesday as part of a wide-ranging investigation into alleged stock manipulation activities on Borsa Istanbul, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office announced.
Among those detained are former Turkish national team and Fenerbahce right-back Gokhan Gonul and illusionist Aref Ghafouri, according to the list.
The probe, initiated following reports from Türkiye’s Capital Markets Board, found that certain individuals engaged in coordinated trading to artificially inflate the prices and trading volumes of select shares. The actions reportedly generated abnormal price fluctuations inconsistent with the natural course of market activity and resulted in financial losses for small-scale investors, the prosecutor's office said.
Law enforcement units from the Financial Crimes Division of the Istanbul Police Department carried out simultaneous operations in five cities—Istanbul, Ankara, Antalya, Samsun, and Kahramanmaras—detaining 12 suspects in total.
The suspects are being investigated for crimes including "establishing a criminal organization with the intent to commit an offense" and "market fraud based on insider information."
The actions of the suspects targeted equity instruments traded on the Borsa Istanbul and centered on manipulation efforts involving shares of a specific publicly traded entity, Avrupa Yatirim Holding A.S. Twenty-five individuals were found to have engaged in manipulative practices involving Avrupa Yatirim Holding shares, prompting the launch of a criminal investigation under Turkish capital markets law, the statement read.
According to the statement, seven suspects—Onur Yilmaz, Mehmet Yilmaz, Emre Kizilirmak, Erol Demir, Osman Ozsoy, Suat Hamarat, and Sebahattin Azizagaoglu—were already incarcerated on related charges at the time of the announcement. An additional six individuals are currently being sought under active arrest warrants, and prosecutors confirmed that search and seizure operations are ongoing in connection with the investigation.
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