Arrested as part of the Beşiktaş Municipality investigation: Cafer Mahiroğlu confessions! 'I complained to Murat Ongun'

Confessions by businessman Aziz İhsan Aktaş, who is under arrest in the corruption investigation into Beşiktaş Municipality, have taken the investigation to a new dimension. Seeking to benefit from effective remorse provisions, Aktaş mentioned the name of Halk TV owner Cafer Mahiroğlu in his statements, alleging that Mahiroğlu was indirectly involved in certain tenders.

Following these confessions, the prosecutor's office issued an arrest warrant for Mahiroğlu and detained Yusuf Yadoğlu, the owner of Hanzade Kurumsal, Beyzade Temizlik, and BYT Otomotiv. Yadoğlu, who was arrested shortly thereafter, also became a confessor with a request for effective remorse.

Having been detained for a short time, Yadoğlu became a confessor to benefit from the effective remorse provision. The parts of Yadoğlu's 15-page statement regarding Mahiroğlu were as follows:

Aside from that tender, I had submitted bids for two other IETT tenders. I had submitted bids for bus maintenance services, one on the Anatolian side and the other on the European side. However, they resorted to many methods to sideline me in both of these tenders as well. When I realized they would not give me these two tenders either, I met with Cafer Mahiroğlu to eliminate the injustice I was subjected to.

Even though I had submitted a total of 800,000,000 lira lower bid in the two tenders, I knew the work would be given to Ulaşım A.Ş. I explained the injustices regarding this matter to Cafer Mahiroğlu. He also believed that I was right. Upon this, he told me that he had spoken with Murat Ongun and İbrahim Bülbüllü about the injustices and irregularities in the tender. When İbrahim Bülbüllü stated that "the instruction was in this direction and the one who gave the instruction was Murat Ongun," Cafer Mahiroğlu also called Murat Ongun. When Murat Ongun told him, referring to me, "we do not want to work with a man who does not follow the order," Cafer Mahiroğlu conveyed to him that I would file a complaint and asked him how they would cover the 800 million difference between the bids. Murat Ongun replied, "There are 99 files, what does it matter if there are 100 files." Cafer Mahiroğlu told me about this conversation.

CAFER MAHİROĞLU DID NOT FACILITATE ME WINNING TENDERS

I did not provide money during the process of purchasing the CHP provincial building. Cafer Mahiroğlu did not facilitate me winning tenders from municipalities, neither in Istanbul nor in Antalya. I did not enter into a partnership with this person. There is no agreement in the background with Remzi Baka or Cafer Mahiroğlu regarding the major tender won by Ulaşım A.Ş. I was the person victimized in this process. When the tenders made by IETT are examined, it will be seen that almost all tenders are objected to and taken to the Public Procurement Authority (KİK).

However, it will be understood that none of the tenders won by Aziz İhsan Aktaş were taken to the KİK. Most of the tenders he has won across Turkey do not go to the KİK. Because almost all of the petitioners are Aziz İhsan Aktaş's men, and they collect money through these objections. He distributes part of the money to the petitioners and keeps the rest for himself. This issue will also be understood from the number of tenders he has won recently.

I DISCLOSED MY DIFFICULTIES TO CAFER MAHİROĞLU

My acquaintance with Cafer Mahiroğlu is due to our relative Feyzullah Arslan directing my son to Cafer Mahiroğlu during the period my son was studying abroad. I met Cafer Mahiroğlu in 2020. In the subsequent process, we had meetings both face-to-face and over the phone. I do not have a commercial partnership with him. He has not had any initiative or behavior that would facilitate my firms winning tenders. I had told Cafer Mahiroğlu about some of the difficulties I experienced during the tender process. I explained this issue in detail above as well. He has no involvement in the IETT tender processes. Since he has acquaintances in the CHP and I thought that if he conveyed the injustices I experienced, they would be taken into account, I made a request regarding these matters.

There is no other reason for this. He did not obtain any financial gain from me or the tenders I won. The allegations that he influenced the tender processes I participated in are not true. I had won the maintenance and repair tender for the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality garbage transfer vehicles on behalf of my firm YST Otomotiv. I designated the firm named Bustech Araç Bakım Onarım Hizmetleri A.Ş, which I established under my brother Fatih, as a subcontractor. This firm had a tax debt of around 42,000,000 lira. It had a receivable of nearly 88,000,000 lira from my firm YST. I also had a receivable of more than 300,000,000 lira from the municipality. The municipality was reluctant to pay its debt. I told Cafer Mahiroğlu that I could not collect my receivable from the municipality. I asked him to be an intermediary on this matter.