Peker claims to expose bribery network involving high level officials, opposition seeks legal action

Serkan Taranoğlu, Sedat Peker, Ali Fuat Taşkesenlioğlu, Zehra Taşkesenlioğlu

• Posting more than 100 tweets over the weekend, including screenshots of WhatsApp messages and a secretly recorded video, Peker claimed to reveal a bribery and extortion network

• The network allegedly involves the former head of the Capital Markets Board (SPK) and Halkbank, an advisor to President Erdoğan, a MP for his ruling AKP and others

• According to Peker, former SPK head Taşkesenlioğlu would block legal requests by companies for capital increase, and then force businesspeople to pay him to process their requests

• The SPK head stored 180 million dollars that he made through extortion in two flats and a villa, Peker claimed

• He released a video where Taşkesenlioğlu's sister, who is also an AKP deputy, yelling at her spouse with a knife in her hand

• Her husband was detained today while reportedly attempting to flee Türkiye via sea

Sedat Peker made new claims targeting high-level officials, posting tweets from an account named "The Crazy Sergeant" (Deli Çavuş, @delicavus_nth) 

Sharing 50 tweets yesterday (August 28), Peker claimed Ali Fuat Taşkesenlioğlu, the former head of the Capital Markets Board (SPK) and the former General Director of the state-owned Halkbank, had "received nearly 100 assets as briber" and "stored 180 million dollars in cash in his two flats" in İstanbul.

"This is my sincere denunciation to the honorable police officers of our almighty state: Ali Fuat Taşkesenlioğlu stores his 180 million dollars in his villa in Bahçelievler and two flats opposite to each other in a building of apartments in Halkalı. When these incidents were reported in the press, he moved a large part of the money," he wrote.

"But we know that a part of that money is still in those homes. The addresses of the homes can be found through cell sites."

Leaked video

Peker also wrote about Zehra Taşkesenlioğlu, Ali Fuat Taşkesenlioğlu's sister and an MP for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and her spouse, Ünsal Ban, an academic, sharing a video he said Ban had leaked to him.

He said he spoke to Ban and he told him that "I think I'm going to be killed."

"He sent me the video he secretly recorded after the incident that Zehra Taşkesenlioğlu attacked him with a knife and slightly injured him. I'm going to share this footage with you," he wrote and posted the video.

In the video, a woman who is purported to be Zehra Taşkesenlioğlu, tells the person who is filming the video, who is supposed to be Ban, "I lost it thanks to you. You two waste me so that you make money. Damn you and the money you make," while holding a fairly big kitchen knife in her hand.

46-)…ben telefonla birkaç kez görüştüm. O da öldürüleceğini düşünüyor. Hatta eşi olan Ak partinin Erzurum milletvekili zehra taşkesenlioğlunun evde otururlarken kendisine bıçakla saldırarak kısmen yaraladığı olaydan sonraki gizlice çekmiş olduğu görüntüleri bana yolladı. pic.twitter.com/Wl4QyssTA5

— Deli Çavuş (@delicavus_nth) August 28, 2022

Peker said Ban had sent the video to him on the condition of anonymity, but he had to disclose that it was him who had leaked the video "in order to save your life."

"Dear prosecutors, dear judges, you act like you don't take me seriously on the excuse that I'm a criminal organization leader (despite all the evidence). Are you looking for a more reliable witness than the Erzurum deputy of the ruling party? She says it herself."

Ünsal Ban detained

Ünsal Ban was detained today in the southwestern coastal city of Muğla, the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) reported at around 1.30 p.m. The police nabbed him while he was attempting to flee Türkiye, AA reported.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor is investigating the academic for "sharing personal information about his spouse with a criminal gang leader, threat and blackmailing," according to the report. 

Zehra Taşkesenlioğlu had filed a criminal complaint against Ban following Peker's tweets. Taşkesenlioğlu and Ban are reportedly in divroce process.

Taşkesenlioğlu's career

In his tweets a day before, Peker noted that Taşkesenlioğlu headed Bank Asya, a bank known to be close to the Fetullah Gülen, a cleric held responsible for having orchestrated the 2016 coup attempt.

He recalled that even people who kept their savings in the bank were put on trial for being members of the "Fetullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ)," and questioned how a person who had worked for their bank for 16 years could continue as a senior official at Halkbank and then be appointed as the head of the SPK.

Starting from February 2014, Ali Fuat Taşkesenlioğlu had worked at various high-level positions at Halkbank until 2018, when he was appointed to the SPK. He was replaced as the SPK chair on April 22.

After Peker's tweets, Ali Fuat Taşkesenlioğlu released a statement on his Twitter account, saying that he will file a criminal complaint against "whom it may concern."

Erdoğan's advisor

A day before, Peker had also released a thread of 50 tweets, claiming to reveal a bribery network involving Serkan Taranoğlu, an advisor to President and AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Salih Orakçı, businessperson Mine Tozlu-Sineren, as well as Ali Fuat and Zehra Taşkesenlioğlu.

Peker released the screenshots WhatsApp messages, which allegedly showed a bribery bargain between Taranoğlu and Tozlu-Sineren. In the messages, Taranoğlu asks the businessperson to pay him 200,000 lira urgently, and Tozlu-Sineren responds, "I can't do it right now."

Tozlu-Sineren on Saturday confirmed that Taranoğlu had asked him for a bribe to enable her to increase the capital of her company, but denied that she had paid him the money he had wanted.

She told Halk TV during a live broadcast that she hadn't been able to get an appointment from Ali Fuat Taşkesenlioğlu, and was told to approach her sister, whom she had met in Erzurum during the 2018 election campaign.

Taşkesenlioğlu had told Tozlu-Sineren to approach a financial consultation firm named "Way Out," and that company asked the businessperson to pay 12 million lira to get her job done, according to Peker. Tozlu-Sineren had rejected this offer as well, he wrote.

Criminal complaints

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) today filed a criminal complaint regarding Peker's allegations.

Muharrem Erkek, the party's deputy chair responsible for legal affairs, and the parliamentary group deputy chairs, and Engin Özkoç, Engin Altay and Özgür Özel, filed a petition with the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, demanding the people mentioned in Peker's tweets be investigated.

The İYİ (Good) Party, the allies of the CHP, announced that they will file a criminal complaint as well.

The Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP) and the Victory (Zafer) Party have also filed criminal complaints regarding the allegations.

Meanwhile, the SPK issued a written statement, saying that it will file a criminal complaint as well.

(VK)