'I walked barefoot for 20 years. I never did anything wrong!'

As I stated in the headline 'I walked barefoot for 20 years. I never did anything wrong'. These words belong to the fraud case of the year. They belong to Seçil Erzan, who has remained at the center of the agenda. Although Erzan summarizes herself this way, new information is being written every day. New files are emerging. So, how did this fraud case become a major topic? How did football players and business people start investing money in this fund? Who filed the first complaint? A 19-year period that began in 2005 and ended in prison in April 2023....

Seçil Erzan.. A name no one knew until April 2023. She became a household name for everyone from 7 to 70 after famous football players and business people alleged they had been defrauded. News about her began to appear daily in bulletins, online news, and newspapers. While reading the court files regarding Seçil Erzan it is seen that the first complaint was filed by lawyer Ümit Karadağ on behalf of one of the victims, businessman Atilla Baltaş. While an investigation was launched following this complaint, it turns out that the journalist who first reported the story and brought it to the agenda was Mustafa Şekeroğlu. Şekeroğlu wrote all the details regarding the investigation in Habertürk. It was after this process that the entire media began writing about Seçil Erzan.

To summarize, she started collecting money slowly in 2021, and the flow and influx of money increased in 2022. Things started to explode in February 2023. She continued this tight cycle in March as well. By the end of March, it became public knowledge. By April, she was bankrupt. She could not find money to pay. This peaked on April 5-6. Lawyer Ümit Karadağ filed the first complaint with the prosecutor's office. The prosecutor's office issued a detention order on April 10. She was detained at her home in Çorlu at 23:25 that night. She was arrested on April 11. Since that day, new information and documents regarding the investigation have been emerging every day. As someone who has been following that investigation closely, I wanted to share some excerpts from the file with you today.

Seçil Erzan first started her fund scheme while working as a teller in Çorlu with small business owners. Later, she moved to Başakşehir. In 2011, she became the manager of the Denizbank Florya branch. With the Galatasaray facilities also located in Florya, Erzan's path crossed with Galatasaray football players. It was after this period that the process leading to prison began. Stating that she entered this path to replace money she lost in the stock market, Erzan received $300,000 from an unnamed individual and invested it.

Erzan explained everything about herself in court as follows. "I became the manager of the Denizbank Florya branch in 2011. At that time, since the Galatasaray Football Club's Metin Oktay Facilities were in Florya, all the players and staff were receiving their contract payments through the Florya branch. The commercial accounts were also at our Esentepe commercial branch. I was a good manager, I was very hardworking, I performed banking operations very well, I loved my job, and I was very committed to my work. Therefore, I became well-known in that community due to banking transactions."

Meanwhile, because I stayed there for many years, I began to share my social life with these people—some of whom are in this courtroom and with whom I didn't have very close relationships outside of work. We started having meals together and meeting up, and as a result, we got to know each other and became informed about both my private life and theirs.

Furthermore, in April 2021, I lost my father to Covid in just two hours. Between December 2015 and August 2021, my mother, who is my only family, suffered two brain hemorrhages. Outside of work, there were people I called my dear ones—people I was connected to by bonds of life and blood, people I spent 24/7 with, whom I truly considered family, my older brothers and sisters. Many of these people are mentioned in the file, the indictment, and the reports, which is why I felt compelled to make this statement.

I am not a fraudster. I was defrauded. Something called a 'fund' emerged and was fabricated, outside of my will. When I was close with the Galatasaray Sports Club players, I was supporting them in evaluating some of their money; that is, I was ensuring they bought the right products at the right time, or helping them buy real estate from outside. I did my best in this regard, but I did not embezzle people's money for myself. Someone defrauded me, and that is how I ended up in this situation.

I trusted myself too much. I thought I could manage the money outside, and I did; I mortgaged my house multiple times. I came here on April 11, and on April 13, loan sharks dragged my mother out of her home, and she lost her house. I sold my car, I sold everything. These people's greed for more than just the normal, under the guise of interest, brought me to this state. I gave out hundreds of promissory notes. There was no problem until February; the principal was being paid. 

"THEY TOOK THE WATCH OFF MY WRIST, THEY PUT BULLETS IN FRONT OF ME"

There were solutions regarding the principal amount, but after February, I was already under incredible pressure. I mean, people came to my house 24/7, doors were pounded on, they held me hostage at the bank. I couldn't explain anything. They put a GPS tracker on my car. They took the watch off my wrist. They roughed me up. They put bullets in front of me. I felt like I was going to lose my mind. I couldn't explain anything to anyone. They threatened me and "We will get you fired from the bank." they said. I experienced hundreds of things I cannot describe; I wasn't myself anyway. I see a few nonsensical statements I made during that period, and there were a few papers. I look at those papers now, and the indictment was secret for 7 months; I always wanted to see these, I mean, they were just nonsensical things produced in my head, I had to give them at that time," she said. 

"I WALKED BAREFOOT FOR 20 YEARS AND I NEVER DID ANYTHING WRONG"

"Everything started with that unnecessary self-confidence, it started with the 'I can do it' confidence. The things I ignored and thought were small turned out to be things far beyond my capacity. Life is much, much harder than being a bank manager like Seçil Erzan. Those I allowed to live for 1,000 years, thinking they wouldn't touch me, have released their poison into my life drop by drop. Now, when I look back"a Perhaps it was because I was comfortable in my comfort zone. It was my fault for not noticing these things. When I look back at my life, I see that that initial self-confidence split my life right down the middle. Before coming here, I was working as a branch manager at Denizbank in April, and I left on April 11. There was always a saying that Denizbank General Manager Kaan Ateş would tell his branch managers: "My captains walk barefoot on burning coals; they have to walk." he would say. As Seçil Erzan, as a bank manager, I walked barefoot for 20 years and I never did anything wrong. I was the captain of a ship that was about to sink. If I had been a fraudster, the ship would have sunk, and I would have been the one to escape."