Ex-Borsa İstanbul chief jailed as justice minister says fund probe reached Turkey's financial bureaucracy

A court in Istanbul jailed the former head of Borsa İstanbul on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, pending trial in Turkey's investment fund investigation. Hours later, Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said prosecutors had found "a comprehensive criminal structure" that reached into the top levels of the financial bureaucracy.

The day also brought sharp exchanges in parliament. Opposition leaders used their weekly group speeches to blame President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government for the collapse of dozens of investment funds. They demanded that officials publish lists of people said to have profited from it.

This story follows our Nov. 2 report on the prosecutors' request to arrest Korkmaz Enes Ergun. That report said no ruling had been made public as of Monday night.

Ergun jailed on a bribery charge

Korkmaz Enes Ergun ran Borsa İstanbul, the country's stock exchange, from March 26, 2021. He was detained on Oct. 31 on suspicion of membership in a criminal organization and bribery, according to NTV. Police sent him to the Istanbul courthouse on Monday, Nov. 2. A judge ordered him jailed on Tuesday morning on a charge of "accepting bribes."

NTV said it had seen the prosecutors' referral letter. The letter concerns shares of a company called Destek Faktoring. The prosecutors wrote that shares in the BIST 50 and BIST 30 indexes would normally be opened to share repo trading right away. Share repo is a form of short-term lending that uses shares as collateral. Destek Faktoring's shares had entered the BIST 50, but the step was delayed.

According to the letter, other suspects said in their statements that Ergun was paid a bribe so the delay would not run longer. The prosecutors argued that the consistent statements showed "strong suspicion" of the crime. They said there was a risk that evidence could be tampered with and that judicial control would not be enough.

Ergun has not made a public statement that 567politics could find. His lawyers' arguments to the court were not reported. A jailing order in Turkey is a pretrial measure, not a conviction.

Borsa İstanbul's board named deputy general manager Atila Türeli as acting general manager on Nov. 1, NTV reported.

The minister's figures

Gürlek gave a statement on the investigation at the Justice Ministry on Tuesday. The ministry published the text the same day.

He said the investigation had 433 suspects. Of them, 112 were jailed pending trial, 186 were under judicial control, such as travel bans or reporting duties, and 38 were fugitives with arrest warrants. Assets of 359 individuals and 111 companies had been frozen and their bank accounts blocked.

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Jailed pending trial112

Judicial control186

Fugitive, warrant issued38

Jailed pending trialJudicial controlFugitive, warrant issued

Source: Turkish Ministry of Justice

Show the numbers

Status	Suspects
Jailed pending trial	112
Judicial control	186
Fugitive, warrant issued	38

The three groups add up to 336. The minister did not say what happened to the remaining 97 suspects. They may have been released, may still be under investigation, or may fall in other categories.

The minister's jail count also differs from a media tally. NTV reported that 121 people were jailed in the case as of Nov. 3. 567politics could not determine why the two numbers differ. Dates, counting rules, or later releases could explain the gap.

Gürlek said about 30 billion lira in cash, property and shares had been handed back through a "voluntary return account." The account was set up at the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), a state agency. He did not say how many people made returns.

"Not limited to simple stock manipulation"

The minister described the case in strong terms. "It has been established that the structure before us is not limited to simple stock market manipulation or a stock market swindle, but is a comprehensive criminal organization," he said.

He said the investigation began with market players but had reached "a criminal organization that also includes the senior financial bureaucracy." He said prosecutors had evidence of "a hierarchical and systematic cooperation" among its members. He said they saw "comprehensive cooperation between the stock market bureaucracy, those who carried out the manipulations, and the media."

According to Gürlek, people inside the system that controls money "set up a bribery wheel" to disable oversight. He said the aim was to play with certain shares, drain liquidity from the market, and take it over.

He also stressed due process. "A person whose crime is proven will answer for it; the presumption of innocence of a person about whom there is no verdict will also be respected," he said.

Gürlek criticized the opposition. He said the opposition was turning the case to political ends with "şark kurnazlığı," a Turkish phrase for cunning or sly tactics. He also said Turkey was aware of "black propaganda" by groups uncomfortable with the government's "Terror-free Türkiye" policy and regional defense role. "Wherever it leads, we will not let go of this," he said.

He said the Fund Coordination Board had held its eighth meeting. Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz chairs the board.

How the case unfolded

The fund crisis began in late summer. Funds tied to some firms had seen prices rise by more than 3,000% in eight months, through cross trades in thinly traded stocks, NTV reported. Regulators then moved to limit how much of a fund could sit in a single stock.

1. 2026-08-28Capital Markets Board caps hedge fund holdings in single stocks
2. 2026-09-15Pusula Portföy says it has defaulted on redemptions
3. 2026-09-17Regulator orders liquidation of 131 funds with more than 455,000 investors
4. 2026-09-26AKP deputy chair Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya resigns amid share-trading claims, which she denied
5. 2026-09-29Fund Coordination Board set up under Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz
6. 2026-10-06Justice minister says 214 people and companies made suspicious exits, with 187.6 billion lira in alleged unjust gains
7. 2026-10-08Two journalists jailed and two put under house arrest over fund reporting (Oct. 8-9)
8. 2026-10-20Capital Markets Board chair Mahmut Sütçü removed
9. 2026-10-31Former Borsa İstanbul chief Korkmaz Enes Ergun detained
10. 2026-11-03Ergun jailed; minister reports 433 suspects

Source: NTV, Turkish Ministry of Justice

The jailing of journalists in October drew attention to the case's media side. NTV reported that journalists Mustafa Balcı and Şaban Sevinç were jailed, while İsmail Saymaz and Murat Ağırel were put under house arrest, over reports and claims about the fund crisis. Gürlek's Tuesday statement named "the media" as part of the cooperation he described, but he did not identify any outlet or journalist. Press freedom has also been at issue in Turkey's competition case against Google over AI search, where press groups argue independent outlets have lost reach.

Opposition leaders respond

Tuesday is the day party leaders address their lawmakers in parliament. The leaders of YENİ Parti, the CHP and the pro-Kurdish DEM Party all raised the fund case. The leader of the AKP's ally spoke about corruption in general terms.

YENİ Parti. Özgür Özel leads YENİ Parti, which he and 91 lawmakers formed on July 24 after a court ruling removed him as leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and returned Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu to that post, DW Türkçe reported. DW reported that the move made YENİ Parti the main opposition group in parliament. Özel called the case "the biggest robbery in the history of the Republic," according to the Anka news agency's account of his speech.

He put the question to Erdoğan directly. If Erdoğan knew, he should "resign immediately," Özel said. If he did not know, he should call an election. Özel said officials had not published a "245-person main list." He named officials who had sat at Erdoğan's crisis table and were later detained or removed. "You cannot get out of this with three or five bureaucrats from afar," he said. He also said the total economic loss had reached $195 billion, counting falls in stock market value and central bank reserve losses. 567politics could not independently verify that estimate.

CHP. Kılıçdaroğlu, whom the independent outlet Medyascope describes as CHP's "appointed" leader because he returned through a court ruling, called the case "the biggest swindle the Republic of Türkiye has ever seen; 187 billion!" according to Medyascope's live blog. "Why isn't the list of 214 people being published?" he asked. He said the government had promised to pay 1 million lira but paid 250,000. He also said returning stolen money should not spare anyone from a theft charge.

CHP deputy group chair Serkan Sarı pressed the same point on the floor of parliament, the party said. He said 18.34 billion lira had been collected from 37 people, against claimed losses of more than 800 billion lira. He asked where the money for 97 billion lira in announced payments had come from. He called for a "241-person list" to be released and for a parliamentary inquiry. According to the CHP account, AKP deputy group chair Leyla Şahin Usta answered that her party was not against investigating corruption. The party's fund monitoring committee also held an extraordinary meeting after Gürlek's statement.

The opposition figures do not match one another. Özel cited 245 names, Sarı 241 and Kılıçdaroğlu 214. The 214 figure matches the minister's Oct. 6 count of people and companies that made suspicious exits. The other lists have not been published, and 567politics could not verify them.

DEM Party. Co-chair Tülay Hatimoğulları noted that Nov. 3 marked 30 years since the Susurluk crash, a 1996 car accident that exposed links among police, organized crime and politics. "The giant fund swindle is this country's economic Susurluk," she said, according to a transcript published by T24. "This swindle will not be closed with a law," she said. "The one who returns what he stole has not taken back his crime." She also said that no public official who looked away had been held to account.

MHP. Devlet Bahçeli, whose Nationalist Movement Party is allied with Erdoğan's AKP, did not name the fund case in the passages published by his party. He said it was "time to leave behind corruption, impurity and all the burdens that weigh on politics." He closed by stressing "that cleansing and clearing in politics is a necessity that cannot be postponed," according to the MHP's text of the speech. He also warned against exploiting national issues for political gain.

Payments to investors

Payments to fund investors remain a core dispute. The AKP's October bill provided for interim payments of up to 1 million lira per investor, NTV reported. Özel said the bill has since become law. Gürlek said payments had been made in funds where liquidation was complete and would continue in the others.

Opposition leaders say many investors have received far less. Özel and Kılıçdaroğlu both said some victims had been paid 250,000 lira each. Hatimoğulları said even sums below 1 million lira were not being paid in full. The government has not published a full breakdown of payments by fund that 567politics could find.

Related coverage

The fund case is one of several issues before parliament this week. Lawmakers are also weighing a defense pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The DEM Party's speech also turned to Abdullah Öcalan's move to new quarters on İmralı and the stalled peace process. Turkey's October inflation figures show the economic backdrop. Rights groups have also gone to the European Court of Human Rights over the jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, whom Hatimoğulları also mentioned.

Open questions

• Who are the names on the lists cited by opposition leaders, and do they match any official list?
• What happened to the 97 suspects whose status the minister did not give?
• How much of the 187.6 billion lira in alleged unjust gains named in October will be recovered?
• Will parliament open an inquiry, after the AKP said it was not opposed to investigating corruption?

567politics will update this story as courts and officials release more information. Our editorial standards explain how we handle disputed figures.

Differing perspectives

How should Turkey pursue accountability for the investment fund collapse?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Hold Erdoğan politically responsible

  Who holds it: YENİ Parti and its leader Özgür Özel

  YENİ Parti says the officials and fund managers involved were appointed by Erdoğan's government and that the case cannot be closed by charging a few bureaucrats. Özel says the president should resign if he knew and call an election if he did not. He says a 245-person list has not been published, that promised payments fell short, and that money sent abroad should be traced through international asset-recovery networks.

  In their words: Anka Haber Ajansı (text of Özel's speech) ↗

• Hold officials who failed to supervise to account

  Who holds it: Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), co-chair Tülay Hatimoğulları

  The DEM Party calls the fund collapse an economic version of the 1996 Susurluk scandal, which exposed links among the state, organized crime and politics. It says a law and partial refunds cannot close the case, and that people who return money should still face trial. It argues that public officials who failed to supervise the funds have not been held to account, that no one should receive favors, and that promised payments to small investors have not been made in full.

  In their words: T24 (text of Hatimoğulları's speech) ↗

• Let prosecutors pursue the network in court

  Who holds it: Justice Minister Akın Gürlek and the AKP-led government

  The government says prosecutors have uncovered a comprehensive criminal organization that reached the senior financial bureaucracy, not simple market manipulation. It points to 433 suspects, 112 people jailed, frozen assets and about 30 billion lira already returned. The minister says the case will be pursued wherever it leads, that payments to investors continue as funds are liquidated, and that the presumption of innocence must be respected for anyone not convicted.

  In their words: Turkish Ministry of Justice ↗

• Publish the lists and open a parliamentary inquiry

  Who holds it: Republican People's Party (CHP), including group deputy chair Serkan Sarı

  The CHP says the public needs the names of those who allegedly profited before the crash, including any lawmakers, prosecutors or ministers. It says 18 billion lira has been collected against losses it puts above 800 billion lira, and asks where payment money came from. The party wants a parliamentary inquiry into the fund crisis and a political ethics law, and says returning money should not end prosecution.

  In their words: Republican People's Party (CHP) ↗