Page 18 - TURKRptDec22

Later on, the government detained Akdere along with some unnamed people. Brokerage houses, which were carrying short positions, hiked their capital. Ahmet Ahlatci put his hand in his own pocket. Gedik Yatirim (GEDIK) cut the bill facing its investors via a rights issue.
And the cracks were smoothed over. Unexplainable moves in the banking stocks and, in general, on Turkey’s stock market, meanwhile, continue.
In August, prior to the banking stocks' plunge, Sedat “The Botox” Peker, Turkey's fugitive mafia boss turned YouTuber and Twitter influencer in spilling beans on the Erdogan administration, released some official documents, videos and details of witnesses, among other things, claiming that Ali Fuat Taskesenlioglu, ex-head of Turkey’s capital markets board (SPK), received $180mn in bribes via a criminal circle that included his sisters (one a governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) MP), a brother-in-law, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s aide Serkan Taranoglu, a journalist, a news website and some officials.
Two palace aides, Taranoglu and Korkmaz Karaca, resigned. Only the brother-in-law, namely Unsal Ban, was detained due to the sharing of a video of his wife Zehra Taskesenlioglu (AKP Erzurum MP), with The Botox.
The Botox released the video on Twitter. In the video, Zehra Taskesenlioglu complains that she was having difficulties due to the money-making activities of Ban and Ali Fuat Taskesenlioglu.
While Ban was under detention, @ankara_kusu (the "Ankara bird"), a Twitter account operated by journalist Oktay Yasar, was writing about how the shares of financial data provider Matriks (MTRKS) were and would be booming.
Since sharing private videos does not equate to a jail sentence, Ban was released. Ban’s release triggered a reaction, however, and he was arrested again.
When police officers went to a hotel to arrest Ban, they saw Yasar was also there, sitting in the hotel’s garden with Ban and Ban’s relatives.
Police officers regularly arrest Yasar since Yasar provides insider information about gangs jostling within the AKP. Gangs leak information, which rival gangs would not like to be known to the public, to their media apparatuses. Then, targeted gangs pressure police to detain the media apparatuses. But, the apparatuses are soon released as they are under the protection of the gangs that make use of them.
So, police officers also arrested Yasar together with Ban. Yasar was later released since he has no connection with Ban’s private video case. However, the direct connection between Ban and Yasar has been noted.
To clarify, the claim in circulation is that Ban was operating the Matriks stock while he was under detention at the police station.
As things stand, the Taskenlioglu bribery gang case remains unresolved. The Matriks case, meanwhile, did not even trigger some grandstand detentions.
Oyak Gida ve Tarim Holding (Oyak Food and Agriculture Holding), a unit of Turkey’s military pension fund Ordu Yardimlasma Kurumu (Oyak), on November 16 sold a 1.31% stake in fertiliser producer Hektas (HEKTS) at Borsa Istanbul.
As a result, Oyak Gida’s stake in Hektas declined to 0.08% from 1.39%. Oyak’s direct stake remained unchanged at 58.82%, while its indirect stake fell to 58.90% from 60.21%.
18 TURKEY Country Report December 2022 www.intellinews.com