Istanbul prosecutors have detained five more suspects in an investigation into trading on Turkey's capital markets, according to Hürriyet, bringing the number of people held in the case to 31. The five were taken into custody in the latest round of a probe that had already produced 26 detentions the previous day. Sixteen of the 31 have now completed their police processing and were taken to the courthouse in Çağlayan after medical checks.
The five newly detained suspects were named by Hürriyet as Ertan Aydın, Seda Tarım Kocabalkan, Abdullah Dal, Hakan Eryılmaz and Fahri Uğur. Separately, five suspects remain at large, among them Nusret Altınbaş, the owner of Altınbaş Holding, the paper reported. His brother İnan Altınbaş is among those in custody, and the assets of other family members have been frozen, according to the same account.
Why it matters
The case reaches into the institutions that sit at the centre of Turkey's retail investing boom — brokerage houses, portfolio managers and bank branches — and into a family conglomerate. Detentions on this scale, ordered by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, signal that regulators and prosecutors are treating suspected manipulation in listed shares as a priority. For ordinary investors, the practical question is how far the inquiry spreads across the licensed firms named in the operation.
What prosecutors are examining
The investigation is being run by the prosecutor's office's bureau for terrorist financing and money laundering, which said it acted on reports and written complaints forwarded by Turkey's Capital Markets Board (SPK). According to the office, the review concerns trading in the shares of four companies: Işıklar Enerji ve Yapı Holding AŞ (IEYHO), Vişne Madencilik Üretim Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ (VSNMD), Odine Solutions Teknoloji Ticaret ve Sanayi AŞ (ODINE) and Tera Finansal Yatırımlar Holding AŞ (TRHOL).
The office said it assessed allegations about those shares together with the SPK's reports and issued detention orders for 31 people. It said the investigation is being carried out carefully under the relevant legislation. That statement, carried by Hürriyet, did not set out the specific allegations against individual suspects.
The firms and people caught up in the operation
The detentions were carried out by the financial crimes unit of the Istanbul police department. Hürriyet listed those held as including Çetin Genç, manager of the Fatih branch of Pirnus Yapı Gayrimenkul; Eren Yeşilyurt, a former bureaucrat; Fadimenur Demir, a board member at Alnus Yatırım Menkul Değerler; and Hakan Avdan, a board member at Atlas Portföy, along with its manager Gülsüm Doğan.
Others named in the operation include Osman Uçar and Canan Özdemir, described as managers; Metin Kartal Emür, deputy chairman of Alnus Yatırım; Mustafa Terzi, chairman of A1 Capital Portföy Yönetimi; Zuhal Topaloğlu, a partner at Atlas Portföy Yönetimi; and Seyit Tahir Özek, chairman of Alnus Yatırım Menkul Değerler. Konuralp Özkan, an Atlas Portföy employee, was also detained.
The list continues with Rüstem Karakaya and Furkan Açar, managers at Pardus Portföy Yönetimi; Neda Soydan and Ömer Eryılmaz, board members at Hedef Girişim Sermayesi Yatırım Ortaklığı, together with its manager Mustafa Zeki Kayahan and employee Anıl Tokat; Pardus Portföy general manager Mehmet Selim Tunçbilek, board member Ali Cesur and employee Ahmet Haluk Güner. Portfolio staff at banks — Ümit Yılmaz, Yasemin Yılmaz and Burak Poyraz — were also held, as were İnan Altınbaş, an Altınbaş Holding official, and Ayşegül Kaya, a manager at Tera Portföy.
The sixteen suspects sent to court, as reported by Hürriyet, were Çetin Genç, Eren Yeşilyurt, Fadimenur Demir, Gülsüm Doğan, Hakan Avdan, Konuralp Özkan, Metin Kartal Emür, Osman Uçar, Seyit Tahir Özek, Zuhal Topaloğlu, Ahmet Haluk Güner, Furkan Açar, Mehmet Selim Tunçbilek, Mustafa Terzi, Ümit Yılmaz and Yasemin Yılmaz.
The breadth of the list — spanning several portfolio management companies, a brokerage, a real estate firm's branch and bank-based portfolio staff — reflects how many intermediaries touch a single stock trade in Turkey's market. It also means the inquiry is likely to be felt well beyond the four companies whose shares are under review.
The Altınbaş thread
The most prominent name in the case so far is Nusret Altınbaş, whose holding company spans jewellery, finance and other sectors. Hürriyet reported that he is among the wanted suspects and has not been apprehended, while his brother İnan is in custody. The paper also reported that the assets of other family members have been frozen. No charges against the family have been detailed in the reporting.
What to watch
The immediate focus is the courthouse in Çağlayan, where prosecutors will decide whether to seek formal arrest for the 16 suspects already brought in, while police continue processing the remainder. The other open question is whether the five suspects still at large, including Nusret Altınbaş, are taken into custody — and whether the SPK's reports lead to further detention orders or to administrative action against the firms involved.
