Turkish authorities have detained 175 suspects during a massive crackdown on an international fraud network whose companies were primarily owned or controlled by individuals with ties to Israel, Justice Minister Akin Gürlek announced on Friday.
The arrests stem from four separate investigations initiated earlier this year by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. The inquiries focused on companies running call centers that leveraged social media and online advertisements to target foreign nationals. Victims were lured into the scheme with fraudulent promises of high returns on foreign exchange (forex) and cryptocurrency investments.
According to Gürlek, the organized operation utilized multilingual customer representatives to bring victims into the fraudulent system, subsequently directing them to investment platforms managed by the suspects. Once registered, these platforms displayed fabricated profits to convince victims to deposit additional funds. When victims tried to withdraw their money, the suspects demanded extra payments, citing fabricated reasons such as taxes or account restrictions. The stolen funds were then transferred to offshore bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets.
The sweeping investigation was coordinated by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office’s Terrorism Financing and Money Laundering Crimes Investigation Bureau. The operation involved close collaboration with Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT), the Organized Crime Department, and Istanbul police cybercrime units. Investigators also utilized financial analyses from MASAK, intelligence reports, and hundreds of victim complaints forwarded through Interpol.
The enforcement phase began at 5 a.m. on Friday with simultaneous raids across Istanbul and Mugla. The operation targeted 28 companies, 42 call centers, and 239 suspects across 286 separate addresses. By 10 a.m., law enforcement officers had raided the call centers and secured the detentions of 175 suspects. Gürlek noted that the operation remains active as authorities work to apprehend the remaining suspects. The justice minister did not disclose the identities of the Israeli-linked individuals or confirm if they were among those currently in custody.
