FOREX operation in 11 provinces: 96 people detained
An operation was carried out in 11 provinces, centered in Istanbul, targeting a network conducting illegal FOREX transactions without authorization from the Capital Markets Board (SPK). The 96 suspects detained in the operation were accused of collecting money from complainants under the guise of investments via a mobile application they controlled, then resetting the system and attempting to obscure the trail of the funds through shell companies opened in the names of third parties.
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The Cyber Crimes Branch Directorate carried out an operation centered in Istanbul within the scope of an investigation conducted by the Küçükçekmece Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. In the operation, which was carried out simultaneously in 11 provinces, operations were conducted against 125 suspects, and 96 suspects were detained.
3 BILLION LIRA ACCOUNT ACTIVITY
According to the statement made by the Istanbul Police Department, it was determined that the suspects were conducting illegal FOREX transactions without authorization from the SPK, collecting money from complainants under the guise of investments via a mobile application they controlled, then resetting the system and attempting to obscure the trail of the funds through shell companies opened in the names of third parties. As a result of the MASAK investigation and financial analyses conducted on the network, approximately 3 billion TL in account activity was detected.
Within the scope of the investigation, police identified 125 suspects and 45 shell companies, as well as two financial offices, two call centers, and the employees of these centers in Istanbul, following 6 months of technical and physical surveillance on the criminal organization led by a person named Murtaza Gülen.
On June 10, simultaneous operations were carried out against 125 people in 11 provinces. While 96 suspects were detained in these operations, it was determined that 9 people whose names were identified were already in prison for other crimes, and 2 people were abroad. Efforts to apprehend the remaining suspects are ongoing.
The statement noted that during the searches conducted at the suspects' residences, offices, and call centers, 4 unlicensed pistols, 175 cartridges, 14,375 Euros, 70,440 TL, 27,804 USD, 8 quarter gold coins, 36 grams of gold, and numerous digital materials and documents were seized.