Ali Nuhoğlu, a businessperson detained last March in a corruption probe against Istanbul municipality and its Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, unveiled more bribes that the municipal officials took from him. Nuhoğlu was among dozens of suspects detained as part of the probe. Imamoğlu and others arrested in the case are accused of taking bribes from businesses in exchange for building permits and rigging public tenders. Most of those arrested in the probe are the municipality’s top bureaucrats and businesspeople who bribed their way into lucrative tenders.
Nuhoğlu collaborated with authorities earlier in exchange for release and testified twice about the alleged wrongdoings of the municipal officials. His third statement, published by the Sabah newspaper on Wednesday, showed he shared the evidence of bribes he paid disguised as legitimate payments.
The construction tycoon made the headlines when an investigation found he sold three villas in Istanbul’s upscale Emirgan quarters to a construction company owned by the mayor’s family, for a price well below market value. Nuhoğlu came forward in June, agreeing to a plea deal. In his earlier testimony, Nuhoğlu presented official documents about payments he made (through his employees) to municipal officials and others linked to Imamoğlu. On one occasion, he paid $640,000 to Zafer Keleş, brother of Fatih Keleş, who chaired Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s (IBB) sports club before his arrest alongside Imamoğlu, and the cash was delivered in person to the younger Keleş by an employee of Nuhoğlu in 2022 as a form of bribe. He confessed he also delivered $700,000 to Keleş a few months later in the same year.
Nuhoğlu told investigators that he also handed over $1.5 million in March 2024 to Ibrahim Bülbüllü, legal adviser for IBB, who remains at large in the corruption probe. “I paid it to facilitate payments to my company,” he confessed. He also shared details about locations and dates of payments his employees delivered to IBB in cash, from a construction site to restaurants run by the municipality. He testified that only after he delivered the cash through his employees was he able to receive progress payments for contracts he made with the municipality.
Earlier this month, the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) issued a report accusing Imamoğlu of seven counts of laundering ill-gotten assets. Imamoğlu, along with Tuncay Yılmaz, general manager of Imamoğlu Construction Company, is suspected of laundering 25 immovable properties, TL 63.5 million ($1.6 million) and 637,106 euros ($731,078), MASAK said in a report. The seven counts of laundering range from illicit real estate purchasing contracts and unlawful sale of immovable properties to cover up financial transactions by pushing sums through various personal and corporate bank accounts and cash submissions by individuals with red-flagged financial profiles.
MASAK said the investigation was expanded to include Yılmaz, Imamoğlu Construction Company, SSB Real Estate Industry and Trade Inc. and Güllüce Agriculture Industry and Trade Inc. The board detected TL 35.2 million in the bank accounts of Imamoğlu Construction Company, all of which was submitted in cash and whose source could not be determined.
The board also found irregularities in the transfer of Güllüce Agriculture shares owned by Ali Nuhoğlu, who was released after pleading effective remorse, to Imamoğlu’s construction company.
According to the board, Imamoğlu and the companies involved supplied financing with high sums whose origins could not be traced and registered in the current accounts differently from the normal process. They also made a purchase strongly suspected to be prearranged look like a commercial purchase and even created an invoice that was recorded in the company’s legal books.
All of these were preceded by accounting tricks in commercial records, the report said.
The report also included testimonies from some suspects in the case.
Furkan Hamzaoğlu, a construction company owner and one of the suspects in the case, alleged he gave away shops and apartments to Adem Soytekin, another businessperson arrested alongside Imamoğlu, to obtain a construction license in Istanbul’s Beylikdüzü district. He claimed four of these apartments were transferred to the ownership of Imamoğlu’s father, Hasan Imamoğlu.
