Scrutiny over the Justice and Development Party's handling of a fund embezzlement inquiry — and its response to media coverage of that investigation — has mounted as the probe's scope broadens to encompass the party itself. Those covering the case through their reporting have encountered legal proceedings, whereas the individuals whose names appeared in connection with the scandal have not been subjected to any equivalent legal process.
Individuals named in connection with the embezzlement investigation include AKP member Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya; Trade Minister Ömer Bolat; Osman Arıkan Nacar, described in reports as a close associate of AKP Spokesperson Ömer Çelik; Mustafa Yazıcı, son of AKP Deputy Chairman Hayati Yazıcı; Fatih Kılınç, who serves as chief of staff to Vice-President Cevdet Yılmaz; and Üsame Erdoğan, identified in reports as a nephew of President Erdoğan. As of this writing, the inquiry has not produced charges or formal legal action against any of the people named.
Speaking at a Turkish Exporters' Assembly gathering, Erdoğan turned to the fund investigation and told attendees that steps taken by his administration from 17 September onward had brought the matter under control. Erdoğan told reporters that a Fund Coordination Board had been put in place and now holds complete authority over the matter.
Three priorities took shape alongside that characterisation: returning accumulated funds to investors as swiftly as practicable, pursuing legal accountability for those who profited through market manipulation, and expanding the inquiry as fresh testimony and new disclosures come forward — all framed, in his words, with the care and exactness of a surgical procedure. Disbursements tied to routine liquidation cases had already been set in motion, Erdoğan noted, while interim payments for the extraordinary category were set to follow once draft legislation before the Grand National Assembly cleared into law.
Bahadır Özgür, a journalist, was taken into custody under a charge of compromising the privacy of an ongoing investigation, then freed under court-imposed conditions that included a prohibition on foreign travel and a periodic reporting obligation. In his police statement, Özgür told investigators that three decades in journalism had preceded this work, and that none of the material published fell under any confidentiality restriction; he further indicated that the report's content drew from the list of the 141 highest-paid individuals released by Justice Minister Akın Gürlek. On television, Gürlek — serving as minister at the time — went on record to verify that such a list existed.
Defending counsel Mürsel Ünder put forward the position that the procedural thresholds needed to initiate an inquiry had not been satisfied and that the probe therefore lacked a lawful basis, while his client maintained that the document was drafted in accordance with the Minister's public statement rather than drawn from the list itself.
Separately, a restriction was imposed on Özgür's account on X, while journalist Murat Ağırel — who had been under a house arrest order tied to the fund investigation — was taken into custody. Aylin Kotil, who holds a seat in parliament, and her son Ömer Sarıgül were both placed under detention. Prosecutors in Istanbul moved to detain Emir Sarıgül, and the city's chief public prosecutor's office indicated that a separate file involving Mustafa Sarıgül would be transferred to its counterpart in Ankara for handling.
Two German nationals lodged a formal complaint that set the case in motion, prosecutors told the court. Soykan, who works as a journalist, told of having reviewed the allegations Ağırel raised about the Sarıgül family, of having been in contact with the family's legal counsel, and of ultimately choosing not to run the story on the grounds that the material available to him fell short of what he viewed as a publishable evidentiary standard.
Ağırel, writing from detention, noted that the story at the centre of his arrest was not one he had authored — a situation he described as without precedent in his own experience. Separately, three journalists — Ağırel, İsmail Saymaz, and Şaban Sevinç — were called before the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office as suspects in a funding inquiry, with investigators pointing to claims the trio had put forward in their published work and on social media platforms.
Prosecutors described the journalists' reporting as content that had misled the public, after which Sevinç and Balcı were taken into pre-trial detention, while Ağırel and Saymaz faced judicial oversight conditions that were later tightened to house arrest.
Penalties were handed down by the Radio and Television Supreme Council of Turkey, known as RTÜK, targeting SZC TV and Koza TV over programming connected to the fund embezzlement proceedings. A monetary penalty set at three percent of the applicable upper threshold was handed down against SZC TV, covering on-air remarks by journalists İsmail Saymaz and Murat Ağırel directed at Trade Minister Ömer Bolat, together with the broadcaster's use of the phrase "intricate relationships" during a segment in which footage of Osman Nacar — a figure against whom allegations of leaving the country with ₺20 billion have been made — was reviewed in the context of his appearance at a Bodrum concert attended by politicians and public officials. Regulators determined that content aired across two of Koza TV's programmes had fallen short of both impartiality and accuracy standards, resulting in a penalty set at three per cent of the applicable upper threshold.
Twelve people connected to broadcaster Halk TV went through police processing as part of a distinct enforcement action directed at the outlet. Of the twelve individuals, seven were directed to the magistrates' court under an arrest application, while the other five faced a judicial supervision order upon appearing before the court. Of the 17 people named in the detention orders, four were understood to be outside the country at the time, while another was already serving time behind bars.
An overseer was placed in charge of the channel's operations. Prosecutors attached to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office have put forward allegations that Mahiroğlu — identified as the owner of Halk TV — drew on ties to the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality to help bring a firm named BUSTECH into existence, and that off-the-books payments totalling ₺14.4 million were directed his way in the form of bribes.
