Lo scandal who has walked the corridors of the city in recent days finance in Türkiye arrived this morning at what is considered the dragon's head, Tera, with the arrest of its chairman and other members of the board, including a former finance minister of the government of Erdogan.
Tera Yatirim Menkul Degerler AS is a brokerage firm for days at the center of ainvestigation into the failure of some equity funds, which caused the loss of billions of dollars of investors. His President Emre Tezmen, already under arrest since last week, he was taken to prison at dawn this morning prigione, in the company of board members of the company, Kerem Alkin and Emre Alkin, and another executive of the company, Alper Ozturk, as reported by the Turkish TV channel ntv. Kerem Alkin, who retired from the Turkish Foreign Ministry last year, served as the country's ambassador and permanent representative to the OECD from 2021 to 2024. His brother Emre He is a prominent economist and television commentator who appears regularly on national channels.
The company, once a little-known brokerage and asset management firm, had experienced asurged by more than 50.000% at its peak, just four years after its stock market listing. Then, last September 16, the company announced that it had failed to honor some refund requests following huge capital outflows, triggering the panic among investors and causing a collapse in stock prices.
Chronicle of an earthquake: between stock market crash, stock manipulation, and interventions by the authorities
But the arrests in Tera's house are only the latest chapter in a larger operation in contrast to suspected stock price manipulation, in the center of a liquidity crisis which has shaken the investment fund sector in Türkiye, prompting regulators to freeze numerous funds and order its liquidationThe investigation by the Istanbul Prosecutor's Office started from an August report by the Sermaye Piyasasi Kurulu (Spk), the Turkish markets authority.
In all this the main index of Turkish stock exchange, the Bist 100, over the last month, has fallen by as much as 12 %, although it remains 16,5% higher than a year ago, among the best performers in the eurozone: since the beginning of last week, around 50 stocks in the index have recorded drops of 40% or more.
Last week the Markets Commission had already presented criminal charges against 38 people for alleged stock manipulation di Katilimevim, a listed company that deals with savings financing, imposing on them a trading ban two years old, who yesterday I arrests followed.
Le Turkish authorities in recent days they have also had to intervene for strengthen financial stability after that some funds they had problems coping with the customer withdrawals after the stock market crash. The central bank for example, it increased repo financing to 300 billion Turkish liras and increased banks' lending limits on the interbank money market tenfold. ensure the liquidity of the lira on the market.
A facsimile of a "Ponzi scheme": half a million investors involved for $18 billion
The funds in question have attracted almost half a million retail investors, 455.758 according to the supervisory authority in over 100 investment funds Turks for a value of approximately 18 billion dollarsTheir holdings were concentrated in illiquid securities low-float assets, so that even limited trading could cause sharp price swings. In some cases, these assets were then used as collateral for short-term loans, the proceeds of which were then reinvested in the same securities, according to financial experts who examined the transactions. The Turkish Justice Minister called the organization “similar to a Ponzi scheme”In response, the markets regulator ordered the liquidation of 131 funds managed by seven companies, including Tera. Meanwhile, the Turkish authorities have also imposed transaction restrictions and asked for data on money transfers and cryptocurrencies abroad starting in 2024 to ascertain any transfers of assets overseas.
Il Minister of Finance Mehmet Simsek said on Friday that the problems had been contained and they will not pose a systemic riskYesterday the ministry declared in a statement that the individuals accused include violations of Turkish Capital Markets Law, membership in a criminal organization, and aggravated fraud committed by company executives or others acting on behalf of a company in the course of business activities.
