Breaking News: Operation against the Alihan Kuriş criminal organization in 17 provinces! Leader of the Süleymancılar detained

As part of an investigation conducted by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office into the Süleymancılar, detention warrants were issued for 49 suspects, including the sect leader Alihan Kuriş.

A simultaneous operation was launched in 17 provinces to apprehend the suspects.

Judicial sources stated that the investigation is "directed at Alihan Kuriş and his team, who are considered to be a hierarchical and economically motivated criminal organization, and that it was carried out simultaneously in 17 provinces."

SEARCH AND SEIZURE AT 123 ADDRESSES

Within the scope of the investigation, search and seizure orders were executed at a total of 123 addresses, including 43 addresses belonging to the suspects and 80 addresses belonging to 33 companies.

MASAK investigations determined that an amount exceeding 100 billion TL was transferred abroad through various methods by individuals and companies linked to the Alihan Kuriş criminal organization structure.

Trustees have been appointed to the companies and related assets suspected of being involved in money laundering.

INVESTIGATION INTO 5 CRIMES

A comprehensive investigation is being conducted into the suspects led by Alihan Kuriş for the crimes of "establishing and managing a criminal organization," "membership in a criminal organization," "laundering assets derived from crime," "fraud to the detriment of public institutions and organizations," and "violation of the Tax Procedure Law."

FIRST STATEMENT FROM THE CHIEF PUBLIC PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

The first statement regarding the operation against the Süleymancılar came from the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

The statement is as follows:

"Within the scope of the investigation conducted by our Chief Public Prosecutor's Office into the profit-oriented criminal organization led by Alihan KURİŞ for the crimes of Establishing and Managing a Criminal Organization, Membership in a Criminal Organization, Laundering Assets Derived from Crime, Fraud to the Detriment of Public Institutions and Organizations, and Violation of the Tax Procedure Law, the MASAK report obtained regarding the suspects and the companies belonging to the criminal organization states;

It was observed that the financial transaction volumes and goods purchase-sale volumes of many of the companies increased significantly in 2020 and thereafter; in parallel with these increases, many of the companies underwent division and transfer processes; in company divisions, the path of establishing new companies with very high capital was generally followed; and it was observed that the newly established companies were in different provinces from the companies that performed the division and had different fields of activity from the field of activity of the divided company. It was observed that some companies had no equity, goods purchase-sale, or transfer records other than capital, and had no active commercial life; despite this, the vast majority of said capital was used to finance the subsidiaries item, and the criminal organization aimed to prevent access to company records and make the tracking of its financial transactions difficult through this method,

In many of the companies, there were transfer receipts through various payment institutions; furthermore, the vast majority of the companies had high cash circulation; in particular, high-amount cash entries whose source is in need of explanation were made to the companies by company partners, and these cash entries were used as a source in the capital increases of the companies in which the partners were shareholders. Similarly, high-amount sums deposited/transferred in cash to company accounts were remarkably transferred to the companies subject to analysis and/or various other companies,

From the transfers coming from payment institutions and the amounts deposited in cash, high-amount transfers were sent to various companies; it was observed that high-amount transactions were made with other legal entities in the goods purchase-sale records of the companies; furthermore, the existence of high-amount goods purchase-sale transactions with various legal entities was found to be remarkable in terms of fake invoicing; in addition, there were foreign currency transfer entries from various companies residing abroad in the company accounts that were incompatible with the goods purchase-sale records; and it was stated that some of the companies received high tax refunds, and these financial transactions may have been carried out as a result of organized work.

In this context, a simultaneous operation was carried out on the morning of 13/08/2026 against the Alihan KURİŞ Profit-Oriented Criminal Organization in 17 provinces, primarily Istanbul, Ankara, and Antalya. Within the scope of the operation, it was decided to detain a total of 48 suspects, some of whom were determined to be abroad, and to carry out search and seizure operations at 43 addresses belonging to the suspects and 80 addresses belonging to 33 companies.

In the simultaneous operation, 30 suspects out of 49, including Alihan KURİŞ, were apprehended and detained; 3 individuals were determined to be abroad, and our efforts to apprehend the 10 remaining suspects are ongoing."