A sweeping operation targeting illegal online gambling and money laundering networks led to the detention of 128 people across 21 provinces on May 14, including polarizing media figure Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı and two senior executives from İş Bank, one of Turkey's largest private banks.
The investigation, coordinated by the Adana Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, targeted suspects on charges of illegal betting, aggravated fraud, bribery and money laundering. Warrants were issued for 198 suspects in total; raids were carried out at 228 separate addresses.
Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced that investigators had identified approximately 100 billion Turkish lira and $2 billion in criminal proceeds laundered through the financial system. Authorities seized 221 properties, 120 vehicles and three boats, and blocked access to 8,500 gambling and betting websites. Three electronic payment companies, three jewellers and a foreign exchange bureau were placed under court-ordered trustees or subject to asset freezes.
Among those detained were three bank managers, eight police officers and four lawyers. Journalist Bahadır Özgür identified the two İş Bank figures on social media as Ertuğrul Koçak — described as a branch director — and Engin Yalçın.
Citing financial records, journalist Murat Ağırel said, there were more than 16 million lira in suspicious transfers into Kütahyalı's bank account.
Kütahyalı was taken from his home in Istanbul and was transferred to Adana, where the case is being prosecuted. In an irony noted widely online, Kütahyalı had posted on X the day before his detention, quoting Gürlek's announcement of a separate illegal betting operation in Düzce and writing: 'All illegal betting gangs will be finished.'
Gürlek, in a statement on X, described the network as a 'multi-layered criminal organization targeting the welfare of our people and the health of our economy,' and said the operation — conducted jointly with the Interior Ministry and the Treasury and Finance Ministry — demonstrated that authorities would 'never compromise' in fighting financial crime.
