The Central Bank has suspended the operating permits of PayFix, Aypara, and Ininal, which were mentioned in the illegal betting investigation. Erkan Kork, who was arrested as part of the investigation and had his bank accounts seized, claimed in his statement that he acquired Bankpozitif by selling “gold and jewelry.”

Erkan Kork, who was arrested on charges of forming an organization and money laundering in the illegal betting investigation, revealed his statement to the prosecutor. In his statement, Kork mentioned that “there is no connection between the company named PayFix and illegal betting sites. On the contrary, we report illegal betting similar formations to MASAK as a company. I have not conducted any betting through my companies, did not facilitate betting, did not launder money obtained from illegal betting, and did not establish any crime organization.”

Refuting the findings and calling them a “scenario,” Erkan Kork stated in his statement to the prosecution, “All the findings mentioned are groundless. I have never added my personal email as a recovery email outside of my company emails. I did not create membership records on illegal betting sites using the email account. This is a scenario concocted to discredit me.”

Claiming that he disputed the claims of the anonymous witness Cesur, who stated that he owed a debt, Kork defended himself by saying, “This person received 1.5 million liras from me for the development activities of my company in 2022, and I have promissory notes from him due to this. I took the notes from him as he did not fulfill the committed tasks.”

Discussing MASAK’s report in his statement, Kork argued, “The report in question contains cumulative data and the stated figures are suitable for the company’s operations. The money transfers in question were the result of the gold and jewelry items that I had at the time of the bank purchase being invoiced, sold, and deposited into my account. The reason for making the transfers in pieces was due to being stuck in exchange-protected deposit limits and having to make fragmented transactions. The money transfers I made are in compliance with regulations.”

Kork claimed that the bank acquisition process involved approval and permission from MASAK, BDDK, the Ministry of Treasury, the Ministry of Interior, the Central Bank, and an investigation by the National Intelligence Agency (MİT).

Continuing his statement, Kork mentioned that they had set up special units in the company to combat illegal activities and claimed, “as part of the fight against betting, we close between one thousand to 1,500 accounts every day. This is a clear indication of our fight against illegal betting.”

Kork asserted that he did not operate betting through the mentioned companies, did not mediate in betting, did not launder money from illegal betting, and did not establish any crime organization.

Banned for Three Payment Institutions

Three payment institutions mentioned in the illegal betting investigation were taken action against. The statement from the Central Bank indicated that all operating permits of PayFix, Aypara, and Ininal had been suspended. The public was informed in a statement that the decision was taken to suspend the activities of these institutions under the Law No. 6493.

COMMITMENT HISTORY
In the investigation, 21 people, including Erkan Kork, the owner of Bankpozitif, PayFix, and Flash TV, were arrested. While raids were carried out against 59 suspects in the operations, property worth 6 billion 900 million TL was seized. Bankpozitif, Flash TV, and PayFix also came under state control.

ESTABLISHED PAYFIX WITH BETTING INCOME
According to the prosecutor’s investigation, Erkan Kork entered the finance sector in 2014 with the Troyin Information company. He established the payment institution PayFix with illegal betting income. Money from illegal betting barons was laundered using the financial infrastructure of PayFix. MASAK and Central Bank reports identified 80,011 different clusters of money transfers in the PayFix system, with a total of 211,109 accounts used in these transactions. It was reported that 855 of these accounts were linked to illegal betting activities.