Turkey's Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said on Tuesday that investigators examining a multi-billion-dollar investment fund scandal had uncovered a wide criminal organisation reaching into the upper levels of the country's financial bureaucracy, Euronews reports. Speaking to broadcaster NTV, he said officials had used bribery to neutralise oversight and had acted as a cartel to manipulate shares.
The probe, which began in mid-September over alleged market manipulation affecting nearly half a million investors, now covers 433 suspects. Police detained the head of the Istanbul stock exchange days ago, and another suspect was remanded on bribery and organised crime charges. The affair has put pressure on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's AK Party, one of whose senior figures resigned over questions about her investments.
Source: Euronews