The months-long 100x rallies in some Borsa Istanbul stocks turned out to be prosecution material, not coincidence. Istanbul's Terror-Financing and Money-Laundering Bureau sought asset freezes on 46 legal entities, 18 funds and 42 individuals over manipulative equity-market trades, demanding that capital-market instruments be frozen and large cash withdrawals plus suspicious transfer traffic be blocked.
The alleged mechanism reads like a textbook: target stocks were accumulated through funds, heavy buying inflated prices artificially, and inflated prices lifted fund unit values. Fund owners first bought in their own names to create demand, then sold the shares into fund portfolios, engineering a two-sided rise in both stock and fund. Book-to-market gaps became abysses in some names, and acts are charged under Article 107 market-fraud provisions.
The net goes beyond individuals. The list holds Tera and Pusula group executives alongside listed companies such as Ulusoy Un, Astor Enerji, Tatilbudur, Enuygun, Eminevim, Türkiye Sigorta, Doğa Sigorta, Yayla Agro and Katılımevim; the list published by odatv.com highlights Tera and Pusula portfolio funds plus the Hedef Portföy Doğu fund. Asset-shrinking moves by spouses, children and close relatives were curbed, with letters sent to land-registry, maritime and civil-aviation authorities.
The process began with the SPK's September 17 decision halting buys and sells of 131 funds on TEFAS. Per Mynet Finans, Justice Minister Gürlek said July 1-September 16 fund outflows are being examined top-down, assets of 46 entities, 18 funds and 42 individuals were frozen, 37 suspects got exit bans, and the money trail will be followed to the end.
Detentions accelerated mid-September. Per birgun.net, Pusula Portfolio chairman Yarız and Tera executives Tezmen and Alkin are among those jailed, with the detainee count reaching 51 in later waves. Per gazeteoksijen.com, MASAK put the pre-TEFAS era under the microscope and halted 2.5 billion lira in transactions, with TEFAS platform data as the probe's backbone.
Freeze Lifted, Then Back
The file also zigzagged: firm-and-fund freezes were first lifted on the SPK's reassessment, then kept back in force as prosecutors deepened the review. The wobble shows an investigation walking between not killing the market and preventing escape.
Architecture on Trial: Can Funds Escape Oversight?
The real question goes beyond 106 names: how resilient are the portfolio-management sector and the TEFAS architecture against fund-driven price inflation? Prosecutors demanded suspicious-activity reports from every institution up to the central registry and Takasbank. My reading: when this file closes, either fund supervision gets rewritten or the next bubble walks through the same door.
AI commentary
"I compared the prosecution memo line by line with the NTV and OdaTV lists and the MASAK reporting; the scariest detail is not the prices but the simplicity of the mechanism. My take: this file is not a stock case, it is a stress test of fund architecture."
AI assessment
The strongest counter-view questions selectivity: not every 100x stock is manipulation; sharp moves in small caps also come from fund inflows and social-media waves. Charging under Article 107 risks sweeping aggressive-but-legal gray-zone trading into the net; acquittals would deal market confidence a second blow.
The second limitation is information asymmetry. Company and fund lists from the memo leaked to the press, leaving named-but-uncharged investors under a cloud for days. The earlier blocking of 246 social-media accounts also reopens where free speech ends and manipulation policing begins.
The practical takeaway for investors is blunt: avoid stocks detached from book value, pushed by funds, whose story is expectation rather than balance sheet; investors in shuttered TEFAS funds are hostage to legal speed. My measure: this file teaches equity investors a free lesson: price belongs to everyone, value to the balance sheet.
Sources
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fund probe · borsa istanbul · spk · tefas · market fraud · masak