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A Turkish court has arrested Tera Yatirim Holding Chairman Emre Tezmen and four other executives as authorities investigate transactions in the country’s capital markets, widening a crackdown that has left hundreds of thousands of fund investors waiting for payouts.
The court also arrested Tera Yatirim Holding board member Emre Alkin, independent board member Kerem Alkin, Tera Portfoy General Manager Alper Ozturk, and Pusula Holding Chairman Serdar Turhan. Bulls Yatirim Chairman Kemal Akkaya, who was among those questioned as part of the investigation, was released after giving his statement to prosecutors.
The criminal investigation followed a liquidity crunch in which several funds failed to meet investor redemption requests on Sept. 15-16, putting heavy selling pressure on Borsa Istanbul. To contain the fallout, the Capital Markets Board (CMB) ordered the liquidation of 131 investment funds managed by seven portfolio management companies.
The CMB also filed criminal complaints against 37 people after identifying market-distorting activity and abnormal price movements in some Borsa Istanbul-listed shares, particularly Katilimevim, an interest-free savings financing company in which Pusula Holding held a major stake.
Authorities launched judicial proceedings against 25 suspects over transactions involving Katilimevim shares, with 15 detained and efforts continuing to locate the remaining 10, while authorities froze the assets of executives and officials linked to Pusula Finans Holding, Tera Yatirim, Hedef Holding and Bulls Yatirim, along with their subsidiaries and Ufuk Yatirim Yonetim ve Gayrimenkul.
Financial and property assets belonging to people linked to the companies under investigation were also frozen. Prosecutors notified financial, land registry, maritime, aviation and other authorities to prevent the assets from being transferred or otherwise reduced.
Meanwhile, in a statement on Wednesday, the CMB clarified that 455,758 unique investors held positions in the 131 funds ordered into liquidation, citing records from the MKK, the institution responsible for maintaining Türkiye's official records of investors and their securities holdings.
According to market estimates based on figures from Sept. 17, the 131 funds had a combined portfolio value of more than ₺800 billion ($16.4 billion). The CMB earlier named Is Bank as custodian and liquidation agent for funds established by Tera Portfoy, while Ziraat Bank took the same role for funds managed by the other six portfolio companies.
Under the liquidation plan, the appointed banks were authorized to carry out the transactions required to unwind the funds, while the assets held in their portfolios were to be converted into cash and distributed to investors in proportion to their fund holdings.
The process also required the banks and the MKK to reconcile investors' individual custody accounts, including their fund holdings and any liens, attachments or other restrictions.
The CMB initially set a maximum three-month period for completing the liquidation process. It later extended the period to six months earlier this week, giving the appointed banks more time to unwind the portfolios and distribute the proceeds to investors.
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