Türkbank scandal

The Turkbank scandal was a political scandal in 1998 surrounding the relationship between the Turkish government, the private sector, and organized crime that led to the resignation of the prime minister Mesut Yılmaz and his cabinet in early 1999. It took place during the privatization process of Türk Ticaret Bankası (TTB), aka Türkbank.

Established as a regional bank by private investors under the name Adapazarı İslam Ticaret Bankası in 1913, Türkbank became the first private bank of Turkey. Following the Turkish financial crisis, which blew up in January 1994, and the devaluation of the Turkish currency at hundred percent, the bank weakened, which operated 274 branches and employed 4,532 staff nationwide at that time. The bank was taken under control by the Treasury in May of the same year. The bank's 84.52% stake was taken over by the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund of Turkey (Turkish: Tasarruf Mevduatı Sigorta Fonu, TMSF) for sale in a public tender.

The TMSF requested for tender on May 4, 1998. On May 18, Police of Istanbul applied to the State Security Court (Turkish: Devlet Güvenlik Mahkemesi) to obtain a permission to eavesdrop businessman Korkmaz Yiğit's mobile phone for the length of one month due to reasonable grounds on his existing ties with and money transfer to organized crime.

On August 4, Yiğit's construction company with his Bank Ekspres placed the highest bid of US$600 million for the majority stake, followed by US$595 million of Zorlu Holding controlling Denizbank. Right after the accomplishment of the tender process, the police notified the TMSF in writing about the relationship between Yiğit and the mob boss Alaattin Çakıcı, and Çakıcı's thraetening other bidders of the tender.

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Wikipedia