Fidelia Soriwei, Abuja
Turkish prosecutors have moved to freeze the assets of former Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya and her husband, Ilyas Kaya, as authorities investigate a major investment fund crisis that has affected more than 450,000 investors.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said it had sent a request to relevant institutions seeking the freezing of all assets belonging to the couple as part of an ongoing investigation into capital market transactions.
The development follows allegations by opposition Yeni Parti that Kaya and her husband made substantial profits from share transactions shortly before the investment fund crisis triggered a major market sell-off.
Yeni Parti alleged that Kaya invested about 63 million lira, equivalent to roughly $1.3m, in shares in April and later sold them for about 1.3 billion lira, or around $26.5m. The allegations have not been established as fact.
Kaya, who served as Turkey’s Family Minister between 2016 and 2018 and later became a deputy chair of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, resigned from her party positions on Saturday amid the controversy.
In announcing her resignation, Kaya said she wanted to take political responsibility and allow any investigation into the allegations to proceed independently and impartially. She did not admit wrongdoing in relation to the allegations.
The wider financial crisis emerged earlier in September after several investment funds were unable to meet redemption requests, triggering a sharp decline on Istanbul’s stock exchange.
Turkish regulators subsequently ordered the liquidation of seven companies managing 131 investment funds. Authorities said the affected funds had more than 455,000 individual investors, with the assets involved valued at more than $17bn.
The investigation has expanded beyond Kaya, with authorities examining suspected irregularities and transactions linked to the investment funds. The Capital Markets Board has also taken regulatory action in connection with transactions involving shares at the centre of the investigation.
The allegations against Kaya have also drawn political attention, with Yeni Parti spokesman Gokhan Gunaydin saying the opposition party would provide further information on individuals it believes were connected to the fund crisis.
President Erdogan held a meeting with economic officials on Tuesday to discuss the fallout from the investment fund scandal. He defended the record of his ruling party while authorities continued their investigation.
“The AK Party is clean, just as its name suggests; it is a party true to its name. No one can tarnish this party’s purity or stain that cleanliness,” he said.
The prosecutors’ asset-freezing request marks a further development in the investigation as Turkish authorities work to determine the circumstances surrounding the investment fund collapse and the transactions involving people and companies linked to the case.
