Fraud, usury, detention… What happened in Fatih Terim Fund?

A new one has been added to the fraud and organized crime incidents that have exploded one after another in recent months. Aside from underground operations in which hairdressers, beauty center owners, and the mafia work together, this time the defrauding of football players with the promise of high interest rates has fallen like a bomb on Turkey’s agenda.

While we were marveling at the millions of dollars flying through the air and trying to make sense of what was happening, we became unable to follow the events as the scandals broke out one after the other. In these days when corruption is becoming a social acceptance and organized crime groups are an indispensable part of our lives, it is useful to keep a record of all that is going on. 

Looking at the current situation in Turkey, it appears as if a criminal empire has taken over the country. When we look at the increase in the number of organized crime groups and gangs that have been exposed, it becomes clear that the large and small ties that society has established with crime are getting stronger. The realization of the “universal” rule of capital accumulation by most of society and the basic motivation underlying wealth is visible these days.

Let’s take a closer look at the “Term Fund” scandal that has shaken the public opinion in Turkey…

‘I was the captain of a sinking ship’

On 11 April 2023, the Organised Crime Branch Directorate raided a house in Göktürk, Istanbul. In this operation, which no one could make sense of at first, the detention of Denizbank Levent Büyükdere Caddesi Branch Manager Seçil Erzan caused the mystery to increase even more. The arrest warrant issued by the court on duty to Erzan revealed that a serious situation was taking place.

Within the scope of the investigation initiated by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, people including Fatih Terim and former players Arda Turan, Emre Belözoğlu, Selçuk İnan, Emre Çolak, and Fernando Muslera, who is currently guarding the goal of Galatasaray, were defrauded by Denizbank branch manager Seçil Erzan with the promise of high profits.  

Erzan, who was arrested on charges of “qualified fraud” and “forgery of documents” in the case initiated upon the complaint of names such as Arda Turan, Emre Belözoğlu, and Fernando Muslera after the fraud with the promise of “high-profit secret fund” and in which 7 defendants were tried, said, “I was the captain of a sinking ship. If I had been a fraudster, the ship would have sunk and I would have been saved. The fact that these people under the name of interest did not care for a little and wanted to earn a lot put me in this situation.” His statements pointed to a serious organized crime structure. 

The Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) report revealed that Erzan received 43 million 920 thousand 82 dollars and 15 million 625 thousand TL from 29 people.

‘He embezzled all my savings by deceiving me’

Erzan and his team, who have been promising high interest rates with the money they have received from business people, physicians, and various professional groups since 2011, have carried out their business quietly until today. This fraudulent activity, which has been intensified since 2021, came to light with the involvement of celebrities. 

Arda Turan, who begged Erzan for his money but could not get it, said in his criminal complaint, “Seçil Erzan has destroyed all my money and labor that I have worked and earned for years by deceiving me,” and stated how the high-interest fund system victimized him. Belözoğlu said, “I have been a footballer for 23 years and a technical director for 2 years. Since I was 13 years old, I have been taking care of my family. She embezzled all my savings by deceiving me,” Belözoğlu said.

Fatih Terim’s name was at the forefront among the people mentioned. Terim stated that he had known Seçil Erzan as Denizbank Branch Manager for 5-6 years and that he had been a customer of the bank for 11 years:

“Namely, no one has ever asked me for any money for this fund. I never gave any money to Seçil Erzan regarding this fund. After I learned about Erzan’s actions, I gave instructions to transfer all my money to another bank. However, my money was transferred 3 million dollars less and although months have passed, it is not there.”

Although Terim, who went after his money, said that he would file a complaint against the bank employees, it was another striking detail that his complaint was not included in the indictment. Although Erzan says that there is no such fund, he is asked to be imprisoned from 66 to 216 years. 

So what has happened until today? Let’s remember together.

Who is this Seçil Erzan?

Born in 1984 in the Çorlu district of Terkirdağ, Seçil Erzan spent her primary and secondary education in Çorlu and graduated from Kocaeli University, Department of Geological Engineering.

After working in a bank branch in Çorlu for about 10 years, she was appointed as a bank manager at Denizbank Istanbul Bahçeşehir Branch. In 2012, Erzan worked at the Florya branch of the same bank. 

Since a sponsorship agreement was signed between the bank and Galatasaray in 2013, he served as the financial advisor of Fatih Terim, the technical director of Galatasaray at the time.

In his 11 years as a branch manager, he advised many football players, business people, and their relatives on the promise of high money return with the promise of “funds”.

Why did many famous names join this fund?

Let us recall again who participated in this process. In the indictment prepared by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, 19 people, including Selçuk İnan, Emre Çolak, Emre Belözoğlu, Arda Turan, Semih Kaya, Ayhan Akman, Fernando Muslera, Buse Terim, Buse Terim’s husband Volkan Bahçekapılı, former club translator Musa Mert Çetin and Emre Çolak’s brother Emrah Çolak, said that they were deceived with the promise of high “funds”. 

Seçil Erzan, who worked as the Florya branch manager of Denizbank for about 10 years, stated in her testimony that she had contact with many footballers at the Galatasaray club during that time. “I knew Arda Turan from the period when I was the Florya branch manager. We were working together with Galatasaray Sports Club. I knew all the footballers, whether they were our customers or not,” Erzan said. 

According to the information that has emerged in the media in recent days, the relationship between Fatih Terim and Erzan is also very controversial. Stating that his relationship with Fatih Terim dates back to the period when he was the Florya branch manager, Erzan said in his statement, “I never received money from Fatih Terim under the name of funds. However, since 2012, I have been involved in all banking transactions. I was exactly Fatih Terim’s financial advisor. Although Erzan said, “I have made many financial transactions with Fatih Terim until this time, but I have never made any illegal transactions until this time,” it is claimed that the bond between the two is deeper. 

We will return to this issue again!

How was the money collected?

Although Seçil Erzan said in her statement that there was no crime and therefore she was alone in the process, it was revealed that she collected money unregistered and received help from some people while doing so. 

In her testimony, Erzan said that she tried to increase the people and the amount of money she received by trying to appear innocent and that she made payments under the name of “profit” to those she promised high profits. 

Erzan said that he provided “profit” in addition to the main money to the names he received money in short periods and that these people left the system, and said that the money was collected by Ali Yörük. 

Another noteworthy name among those who helped Erzan was Nazlı Can. Can, a close friend of Erzan, has been helping Erzan with money transfers since 2019. In short, Nazlı Can was one of the leading people who collected the money by hand. 

In the absence of Seçil Erzan, Nazlı Can even sat at her desk at the branch, and in the handwritten notes she kept, it was seen to whom the money entering the system belonged. After December 2022, Nazlı Can received 150 thousand dollars from cardiologist Deniz G. and 750 thousand dollars from jeweler Ömer K. Nazlı Can also the person who received 190 thousand dollars received by Fatih Terim’s nephew Terim Arıcan from Buse Terim. 

In the interrogation of the prosecutor’s office, Erzan stated that they received an estimated 2 million 500 thousand dollars from Bülent Ç. Erzan said, “I had this money taken with Ali Yörük. As soon as I received this money, I gave it to the people who were expecting payment from me,” but it was later understood that the aforementioned Ali Yörük played a more critical role.

In her statement, Seçil Erzan explains in detail how she received the money from Arda Turan, technical director Emre Belözoğlu, and Fatih Terim’s son-in-law Volkan Bahçekapılı:

“One day I called Volkan Bahçekapılı on the phone. I said, ‘There is a fund with high returns for a very short time, Fatih Terim also knows about the fund. Volkan Bahçekapılı said to me, ‘I know, Buse has one too. One morning at 7 o’clock, Volkan Bahçekapılı said, ‘Do you still have this fund? Emre Belözoğlu is waiting to hear from you,’ he texted me. Both Volkan Bahçekapılı and Emre Belözoğlu found me cash and delivered it to Volkan Bahçekapılı’s office. In total, for two days, I first received 1 million 400 thousand dollars, then 1 million 492 thousand dollars, and finally 400 thousand dollars in March 2023. However, I have not paid Volkan Bahçekapılı until now.”

Erzan, who also conveyed his conversation with Arda Turan, said the following:

“One day I invited Arda Turan to the branch. I said to him, ‘You put 5 and get 10. But urgent money is needed,’ I said. Arda Turan helped me a lot. He brought money from abroad. He sold his house and brought money.”

What was Ali Yörük’s critical role?

As we said, Ali Yörük is a courier. So much so that Yörük was shown by Erzan to the people who would collect money as the person in charge of the money transport unit of the bank branch.

Erzan, who said that he used Yörük in most of the money transports, said that Ali Yörük also “siphoned” money for himself. It was learned that Yörük, who pocketed 400 thousand dollars from the money collected, multiplied the money he confiscated through loan sharks.

On 29 November, İsmail Saymaz reported that Ali Yörük is suspected to be the person who not only transferred the money but most probably established the money traffic through foreign channels. 

Saymaz revealed that Yörük was shuttling between Turkey and Bulgaria. In the report prepared by the Anti-Financial Crimes Branch of the Istanbul Police Department on 23 April 2023, it was revealed that Yörük had been traveling to Bulgaria by land from Edirne at regular intervals since 2019. 

Accordingly, Ali Yörük traveled abroad 28 times in 2019, 10 times in 2020, 20 times in 2021, 22 times in 2022, and 6 times in 2023. It was reflected on the cameras that Ali Yörük crossed the border in the same way with his brother Atilla and his partner Adem A. on 13 January 2023 and returned on 14 January. However, the security authorities detected that there was another unknown person with them this time and determined that this person was Bulgarian citizen Boris Yankov. 

Yankov has 79 entry and 91 exit records from 17 November 2018 to 24 May 2019. A detailed study conducted by the police on this person revealed that the person using Yuri Borisov’s passport was Hüseyin Kurtuluş, a Bulgarian Turk. Kurtuluş, who is a dual citizen, was born in 1988 and registered in Edirne.

How much is Fatih Terim involved in this fund?

In his statement given to the prosecutor’s office on 2 June, Fatih Terim stated that he had known the defendant Seçil Erzan as Denizbank Branch Manager for 5-6 years and that he had been a customer of the bank for 11 years. Stating that he could not spare time for his financial affairs due to the intensity of his work, Terim stated the following:

“In other words, all my banking transactions were managed by the employees at the bank I worked with. I never went to the branch of Denizbank in Florya or Levent in my life. When I need money, I ask my relatives and family friends. They would go and withdraw the money from the bank and bring it to me. Sometimes my co-workers take the money I need from the bank and bring it to me and give it to me. When I needed to sign some documents, from time to time Seçil Erzan would come to me and get my signature at the facilities in Florya. I even signed documents when she came to my house.”

Terim stated that from time to time he asked the bankers he worked with what his situation was:

“They would take a visual photograph of my financial situation in an Excel spreadsheet on their computers and send it to me via text message. On 6 April, I corresponded with Ms. Rüya, who works at Denizbank, via message to find out what was going on in my account. She sent me a message that she would send me the information. There were 3 items in the Excel spreadsheet she sent. The first one contained information such as 219 thousand 300 dollars, 47 thousand 400 liras (deposits), and custody o/n 3 million dollars. Afterward, when I heard about Seçil Erzan’s incident, I got angry with the bank and asked that all my money in the bank be transferred to my wife Fulya Terim’s account at Garanti Bank. I have determined that the 219 thousand 300 dollars and 47 thousand 400 liras (deposit) sent to me via message and mentioned above have come to my wife’s account, but the 3 million dollars has not been sent yet.”

It was noteworthy that Erzan said that Terim was one of those who deposited money into the fund. Erzan said that she received 300 thousand dollars from Fatih Terim and that she utilized this money, she claimed that Terim asked for more money than he had given her when he parted ways with Galatasaray and that she could not say no to him. 

However, the fact that Terim did not file a criminal complaint to Denizbank about the missing 3 million dollars raised a great deal of curiosity. In the news in DW, it was claimed that Terim did not bring up this 3 million dollars during the restructuring protocol of the loans he received from Denizbank. 

The most important statement revealing the closeness between Seçil Erzan and Terim came from Candaş Gürol, Erzan’s fiancé and also Terim’s lawyer. In his statement, Gürol said that when he and his fiancée went on holiday, they went to the Terim family and that there was almost a father-daughter relationship between Fatih Terim and Seçil.

Gürol also said, “When I went to Fatih Terim’s house, he told me that he had invested money in Seçil’s fund and that even his daughter and son-in-law had put their money in this fund. Neither of them had mentioned this to me before,” Gürol said. 

Despite this, it is remarkable that Terim’s name is not included in the indictment. İsmail Saymaz described the absence of Fatih Terim’s name in the indictment as “vaporized” and explained Terim’s situation in the process as follows:

“Erzan says that Fatih Terim also gave 300 thousand dollars. We see that Terim attended the meeting with Denizbank officials together with Arda Turan and Emre Belözoğlu. So he also lost money. Furthermore, even his daughter and those closest to him were defrauded by using Fatih Terim’s name. So much so that Terim’s son-in-law Volkan Bahçekapılı and his close friend Nur Erkasap did not intervene in the withdrawal of large amounts of money due to their closeness to Terim. Yet, the prosecution vaporized Fatih Terim’s name in the file. Terim testified neither as a victim nor as a witness. Even if he did, it was not included in the file.”

Arda Turan to Erzan: Did Fatih profit?

One of the most striking parts of the WhatsApp conversations between Seçil Erzan and Arda Turan, which took place in a “panic atmosphere”, was Turan’s question to Erzan: “Did Fatih hoca profit from this?”. 

The conversation between the two on the subject is as follows:

Arda Turan: ‘You know I’m a mess, Seçil. So is Fatih Hodja in profit from this?

Seçil Erzan: ‘Well Arda, I’ll tell you something, under normal circumstances the coach would have made a profit because the coach… You’re alone, aren’t you?’

Arda Turan: ‘I am alone. The teacher was in profit, right?’

Seçil Erzan: ‘Uh-huh.

Who lost how much money?

As we said at the beginning, Erzan is a name that has “multiplied” the money of many people from doctors to business owners, business people to villagers under the name of investment, interest, debt, and funds since 2011.

Arda Turan, who has been working with famous names since 2022, is the person who gave the most money to Erzan and has the most creditors with $ 7.5 million. He is followed by Emre Belözoğlu with 4 million 292 thousand dollars. 

Among those who gave money to Seçil Erzan are the following names:

– Selçuk İnan: 1 million 535 thousand dollars

– Nestor Fernando Muslera: 500 thousand dollars

– Emrah – Emre Colak: 3 million 212 thousand dollars

– Buse Terim Bahçekapılı: 240 thousand dollars

– Bülent – İnci Çeviker: 2 million 198 thousand dollars

– Burhan Taşpolat – Evrim Pınar Güzel: 1 million 416 thousand dollars and 1 million 500 thousand TL

Who saved their money?

According to İsmail Saymaz’s article, some names saved their money from Seçil Erzan. Erzan gave the name of former footballer Semih Kaya and claimed that she brought 3 million dollars and received 5 million 700 thousand dollars back. 

Journalist Fatih Altaylı claimed that former footballer Semih Kaya took his money by beating the defendant Erzan and said the following:

“We also know that Semih Kaya manhandled and beat Seçil Erzan… We started talking about other footballers. As far as I can see in the file of the case I read, there are beatings, some of the footballers beat Seçil Erzan like Semih Kaya, who has no receivables left, there is a very complicated business.”

Erzan said that she was threatened by Kaya and his manager, “They continued to take money from me. I continued to give this money to save my neck. I paid the money I gave to Semih Kaya from the money I received from Emre Belözoğlu and Arda Turan. Semih Kaya bought a villa for himself in Bodrum with this extra money,” he said.

On the other hand, it is claimed that fraud is not the only offense of Erzan and his team. In the case where the public is openly talking about the offense of usury, many names are put in 1 and got 5. Until today, the names of these people have not been given and it is unclear where the money went. Ayhan Akman is also alleged to have taken back more money than he gave.

However, according to the indictment, even though Seçil Erzan says, “I distributed the money to everyone because I gave short-term high interest,” the size of the money collected suggests that this will not be easy. So much so that the money collected is thought to be more than 1 billion 250 million TL. The whereabouts of this money strengthens the possibility that Ali Yörük may have smuggled money abroad.

What is mentioned in the BRSA report?

According to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency’s (BRSA) report dated 18 August 2023, 29 people who gave money to Seçil Erzan in cash or by hand at various times filed complaints, and some of these applicants stated that they could not get their money back partially or completely. 

According to the claims received by the Bank, it was determined that the amount claimed by the complainants was 43 million 920 thousand 82 dollars and 15 million 625 liras. It was noted that the money movements matching 23 banks in Turkey were also examined and no matching money movements were detected.

What was said in Denizbank’s inspection report?

In the inspection reports submitted by Denizbank to the prosecutor’s office, it was summarised that the transactions were based on close relations with Seçil Erzan, that there was no trace of the transactions made at the bank, and that the complainants never applied to the bank during the process.

In the inspection report submitted by Denizbank to the prosecutor’s office regarding Arda Turan and Volkan Bahçekapılı, the following statements were made:

“Even if Seçil Erzan believed the promise of 253 percent return in dollar terms with a maturity of 46 days, taking the money that she intended to invest out of her account and not suspecting the documents that Seçil Erzan claimed to have given to her, the will to give money to Seçil Erzan by hand and through a third party account is a behavior that cannot be expected from any person of average intelligence.”

When is the next hearing?

After the Istanbul 41st High Criminal Court accepted the indictment, 7 defendants, 4 of whom were arrested, appeared before the judge on 20 November. The court decided to release 2 defendants and adjourned the hearing to 12 January 2024.