The person who handed over the loan converted into dollars to Arda Turan's brother, Okan Turan, turns out to be the bank branch's operations manager

Footage showing the delivery of a 33 million lira loan, which Arda Turan was made to take out, to Ali Yörük, one of the detained suspects in the case involving banker Seçil Erzan—who caused dozens of people to lose their savings through a fund fraud scheme—has caused a major stir. It has been revealed that the person who handed over the loan, which was withdrawn in Turkish Lira and then converted into dollars, to Arda Turan's brother, Okan Turan, was Asiye Öztürk, the operations manager of the bank branch.

Following the release of this footage, the bank issued a statement, noting that this transaction did not pertain to money deposited into the bank, but rather to a cash withdrawal by an account holder. It was emphasized that this was an extremely normal and natural transaction.

THAT MANAGER TESTIFIED DURING THE INVESTIGATION PHASE

Asiye Öztürk, who had her signature as the second person on documents given by Seçil Erzan to İnci Çeviker (the wife of Bülent Çeviker, whose money Erzan took with the promise of investing it in a fund), to Volkan Bahçekapılı (regarding Emre Belözoğlu's money), to Selçuk İnan, to Nestor Fernando Muslera, and to İsmail İbrahim Çağlar, testified during the investigation phase. Öztürk, who is listed as a suspect in the indictment, explained in her defense taken by the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office that she began working as bank staff at Denizbank in 2002 and had continued her duties as an operations manager since 2010. Stating that they worked together with branch manager Seçil Erzan at the branch on Levent Büyükdere Street, Öztürk said the following:

“Seçil Erzan had been appointed to our branch from the Florya branch about 8 months ago. Until this time, there had been no problems between us. I am absolutely unaware that Seçil Erzan was deceiving people with a fund promise. I don't know who comes to her office or who leaves. Because our branch has two floors, I work on the bottom floor. Seçil Erzan, on the other hand, works on the top floor. On the floor where I am located, my office is right behind the teller counter, and there is a camera in my office. With this camera, I can see both the first and second floors of the bank. However, I cannot see inside Seçil Erzan's office. I know that after manager Seçil was appointed to our branch, Galatasaray football players in particular came to visit her, but I do not know who deposited how much money or who had what transaction done. I know that Emre Belözoğlu came to see manager Seçil on April 7, 2023. Arda Turan also came to see manager Seçil from time to time. Additionally, Semih Kaya, Selçuk İnan, and Emre Çolak also came to visit manager Seçil in the same way. I performed banking transactions with Semih Kaya and Selçuk İnan from time to time. Specifically, I carried out cash withdrawal or deposit transactions through the system. However, I did not perform any transactions related to a fund. I have never heard any word from anyone until now under the name of the Fatih Terim fund, Hakan Ateş fund, or any other fund.”

“MY MISTAKE IS SIGNING WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT THE TRANSACTION WAS”

Stating that she became aware of the events on April 7, 2023, due to the actions of Seçil Erzan that were the subject of the investigation, Asiye Öztürk continued her testimony: “Frankly, I was shocked. Manager Seçil had me sign a number of documents from time to time. However, because she was my manager and I trusted her both as a human being and as a colleague, I may have signed some documents without knowing. One of the wet signatures on the Denizbank stamp at the bottom of the futures instruction and transaction result form, where Volkan Bahçekapılı is the customer among the documents you showed me, belongs to me. I do not even know what the content of this transaction was, how much money manager Seçil received, what the maturity was, or what percentage of profit would be made at the end of the maturity. My only mistake is signing without knowing what the transaction was. I accept the event only in this form. Other than that, I did not promise a high-yield fund to anyone.”

"SHE HAD A HURRIED MANNER"

Asiye Öztürk stated, "I am not aware of who Seçil Erzan met with or what she promised. As far as I can remember, I have signed 4-5 documents that I did not know about and whose content I was unaware of. Because manager Seçil would call me over and say, 'Asiye, sign these, I will give them to the customer urgently.' At that moment, manager Seçil's desk was already very cluttered and there were images on the computer screen. I also signed the documents I did not know about, thinking the matter was urgent and important. Since there were other documents on top of the papers, I frankly did not even know what I was signing. I only saw the Denizbank stamp at the bottom. Seçil Erzan's signature was also on it. Trusting this, I signed next to it. I accept that I made a mistake in this sense. Other than that, once she came to me, took on a hurried manner, handed me a document, and while talking to me, she had me sign the document at the same time. I again did not know what I was signing," she said.