Confessions of a businessman in a corruption investigation into Istanbul’s former mayor, Ekrem Imamoğlu, were confirmed by a report by the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK). Adem Kameroğlu, a contractor, has admitted that he supplied a villa to Imamoğlu as a bribe during an investigation into Imamoğlu’s alleged criminal network.
The MASAK report shows SSB Inşaat, a company belonging to Imamoğlu, paid the cash for the said villa, but the money was returned to the company’s account, confirming that it was an attempt to disguise the bribe.
Kameroğlu has told investigators earlier that he bribed Imamoğlu with a lakeside villa in Istanbul’s Büyükçekmece district, in return for acquiring a permit for his construction project at the heart of Beylikdüzü, an Istanbul district where Imamoğlu served as mayor before winning the top office of the city in the 2019 elections. Kameroğlu added that he was “paid” for the villa but was forced to hand over that cash to Tuncay Yılmaz, general manager of Imamoğlu Construction Company, operated by the former mayor’s family. Yılmaz is among dozens arrested along with Imamoğlu in March in a corruption operation targeting the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB).
The prosecutor’s office asked MASAK to prepare a report to check whether Kameroğlu was telling the truth. MASAK examined money transfers between the SSB Inşaat company owned by Imamoğlu and Kameroğlu’s company and found that SSB paid TL 100,000 to Kameroğlu’s company in 12 installments.
Kameroğlu has told investigators that Imamoğlu “bought” a villa from him in exchange for permits for his residential development located next to the municipality building of Beylikdüzü in 2016. He said Imamoğlu and his wife later visited the villa, which was still under construction back then and forced him to cover all interior furnishing costs to their taste. He added that SSB Inşaat paid him about TL 1.5 million to purchase the villa, but it was only to dodge inspection, and he handed the cash he received to Yılmaz.
