Star Metro - Turkey warns opposition, press over investment fund crisis

The country has been grappling with the fallout from an investment fund scandal which erupted in mid-September, prompting prosecutors to investigate allegations of widespread market manipulation.

So far, a senior figure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AKP has resigned, and on Thursday, the main opposition Yeni party raised questions about whether two ministers had profited through investments in the suspect funds.

Both Trade Minister Omer Bolat and Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Ozdemir Goktas have denied any wrongdoing.

Early Friday, police arrested two journalists who shared an image on X suggesting a link between AKP spokesman Omer Celik and one of the main investment fund suspects, on grounds of "publicly disseminating misleading information".

Speaking to NTV private television, AKP secretary general Eyyup Kadir Inan said the party was facing a "network of lies".

"We will absolutely not let our party and government be targeted, whether by Yeni or the journalists they paid to act as their mouthpiece," he said.

"Legally, we will hold them accountable for all attacks on our party."

- 'Record profits -

The crisis erupted when several funds were unable to satisfy investor redemption demands.

Regulators quickly placed seven companies into liquidation that manage 131 investment funds with assets reportedly worth some $17 billion.

More than 455,000 individual investors have been affected, regulators say.

Investigators found 214 individuals and legal entities had earned a total of 187.6 billion lira ($3.8 billion) through funds managed by three firms: Tera, Pusula and Hedef, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said on Friday.

Those who had invested in funds managed by Tera had earned record profits over 90 billion lira, he told Sabah newspaper.

Those who sold shares in the days before the crisis hit the headlines were being "specifically" looked at by investigators, who had found they "exited the funds with prior knowledge and based on information provided to them".

Prosecutors sent a list of names to the TMSF deposit insurance fund "which has started officially notifying the individuals about the return of the money" to a voluntary restitution account run by the regulator, he said.

It was not clear whether they would face prosecution if they returned the funds.

Meanwhile, parliament was to vote Friday on an AKP bill regarding fund liquidation and investor repayments, media reports said.

- 'We will hold them accountable' -

The two ministers whose investments were questioned on Thursday hit back with legal action.

Bolat filed suit against two journalists, Ismail Saymaz and Murat Agirel from Sozcu TV, over a report raising similar questions about him on grounds of publicly spreading misleading information.

And on Friday, Goktas said she had sued three Yeni lawmakers for slander and vowed to pursue "media outlets that spread these allegations".

Meanwhile, the two journalists arrested over the image on X -- Mustafa Balci of the pro-opposition Sozcu newspaper, and Saban Sevinc, editor-in-chief of online news channel Bizim TV -- were being quizzed by prosecutors at an Istanbul court, media reports said.

"Ozgur Ozel and his colleagues will pay the price for these lies and slanders," AKP's Inan warned, referring to the main opposition leader who heads the Yeni Parti.

"Legally, we will hold them accountable for all attacks on our party."

K.Evans--SMC