President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Wednesday that payments to investors in funds being liquidated will pick up speed once a bill before Parliament takes effect.

Erdoğan said the government's response will also include holding those who profited unjustly to account and putting measures in place to prevent a similar crisis.

He was speaking at a group meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Parliament.

The scandal broke just over a month ago, when several investment funds said they were unable to satisfy redemption demands, prompting prosecutors to open an investigation into allegations of widespread market manipulation.

Regulators placed seven firms managing 131 funds into liquidation, affecting nearly half a million individual investors. The Justice Ministry says more than 80 people have been arrested.

Separately, Turkish police on Wednesday detained 26 people, among them an ex-finance ministry bureaucrat and investment fund executives, as part of the investigation.

Erdoğan described the government's approach as three stages.

He said the Fund Coordination Board and the government's economic team meet regularly and announce their decisions to the public transparently.

"After the bill on our parliament's agenda comes into force, the payment process will speed up a bit more," he said.

Liquidation is split into ordinary and extraordinary procedures. Ordinary applies to firms whose finances are relatively manageable.

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said this week that TL 40.8 billion has been paid to 45,747 accounts under ordinary liquidation. Interim payments of up to TL 1 million for the remaining funds depend on the bill.

'Baseless rumors and ravings'

The second stage, Erdoğan said, is to hold to account in court those who made unjust and excessive gains through manipulation, using methods outside law and morality and, at times, as part of an organization. He said chief prosecutors are acting on the evidence and on confessions.

Prosecutors on Wednesday said they had issued a warrant for 31 people, of whom 26 had been detained, with police looking for the other five.

Among those still sought was Nusret Altınbaş, owner of Altınbaş Holding, a large privately-held Turkish conglomerate. His brother is already in custody and family assets have been frozen, Anadolu Agency (AA) said.

It was not immediately clear on what charges Wednesday's suspects were detained, but the list includes 16 executives and staff who worked for portfolio management firms already named in the scandal: Atlas, Pardus, Hedef, Tera and A1.

Erdoğan said prosecutors were working to hold "those who obtained unfair and exorbitant profits through manipulation, using illegal and unethical methods ... accountable before the law."

And he urged citizens to be wary of attempts to "manipulate public perception through the media and social media," urging them to avoid "baseless rumors and ravings of those who are neck-deep in corruption."

Return of excessive gains

Şimşek said authorities have identified people who profited from market-disrupting activity and stressed that anyone who did not voluntarily return excessive gains would face legal proceedings.

"First, those who made gains of TL 10 million or more will be approached. If there is no voluntary return, the justice ministry will initiate the relevant legal procedures," he said.

Turkish law has an "effective remorse" mechanism under which anyone accused of market-manipulation offences can obtain immunity or a reduced sentence by paying back at least twice the profit obtained from wrongdoing.

If they repay before a criminal investigation has started, no sentence is imposed, but if it is during the investigation, their sentence is reduced by half, or by a third if payment happens during the trial stage.

Preventing repeat

Erdoğan said the third stage covers the steps needed to avoid facing a similar problem again.

He said that, drawing on a comprehensive report to be prepared by the State Supervisory Council (DDK) and other work under his instructions, "every kind of step" will be taken on institutional, individual and legislative matters.

He said the government takes the matter very seriously, since it affects not only the more than 455,000 investors in the liquidated funds but also many more people, including their families. "We are going after the matter without compromise," he said.