The Istanbul penal (sulh) court has appointed Turkey’s deposit insurance fund TMSF as trustee at fintech Paybull, the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office (@istanbulCBS) said on November 25.

The owners of the company are accused of catering to illegal betting schemes for money laundering purposes. Twenty five suspects have been detained. Another company, namely Lezzona Gida, was also seized in the operation.

Paybull Odeme was an authorised payment institution. Turkey’s central bank revoked its licence in July.

First payment institution

Since February, Turkey’s government has been instigating a wide range of judicial operations. Each day, people are arrested and companies are seized.

(See the latest situation with company seizures here and in political operations here).

Six of the seized companies are electronic money providers. The licences of five of them have been revoked.

Paybull is the first payment institution seized by TMSF.

A bank, namely Bankpozitif, was also seized while the owners of an investment bank, namely Q Yatirim Bankasi, were arrested, but there has been no seizure of that entity as yet.

Fenerbahce president’s company raided

Police officers were examining the computers and computer systems of Tuttur.com, owned by Saran Holding, the prosecutor’s office also said on November 25.

Saran Holding is owned by Sadettin Saran, head of sports club Fenerbahce (FENER). Tuttur was a legal company that provided betting services under an official sub-licence provided by the local monopolistic licence holder.

Before Saran was elected as president of Fenerbahce, he was accused of having a conflict of interest as a betting company operator. In response, Tuttur announced that it ceased its operations.

Later on, it was claimed on social media that Tuttur hid the names of some footballers and other personnel in its records to prevent their prosecution under an ongoing operation into illegal betting that has so far targeted hundreds of players and referees.

The chief prosecutor’s office said that it was investigating the claim.

Red Notice issued for MeritKing boss

The prosecutor’s office also said on November 22 that it has issued a Red Notice for Fedlan Kilicaslan, owner of Merit King and deemed a fugitive abroad.

Merit King is a company based outside Turkey that provides illegal betting and gambling services to the Turkish market. There are many such companies.