Accounts of eyewitnesses in a case against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu disclosed rampant corruption and bribery in Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB), according to the media reports.
Imamoğlu, along with dozens of others, was arrested on Sunday on charges of corruption related to his two-time tenure as mayor of the city, as well as his previous tenure as mayor of the city’s Beylikdüzü district. Prosecutors say he led a criminal network profiting from bribes from businesses and tender rigging, among other offenses. His alleged cohorts, from municipality employees to owners of companies who were awarded lucrative contracts, were among the detainees and those formally arrested on Sunday.
Osman Subaşı and Ismail Yırtıcı are among the witnesses in the case against the alleged Imamoğlu-led network. Both men were owners of an advertising and signage company and they disclosed a scheme of bribery under Imamoğlu. According to a report by Sabah newspaper, Subaşı and Yırtıcı told investigators that they started being asked to pay bribes after Imamoğlu took office in 2019.
Subaşı is also the brother of Eyüp Subaşı, who was among 48 suspects arrested alongside Imamoğlu on Sunday. Eyüp Subaşı is the owner of a company selling billboards, and signage ads across the city.
Subaşı told investigators that he ran the company with his brother until the 2019 municipal elections, in which Imamoğlu won Istanbul's mayoral seat for the first time. He said they were awarded a contract in 2020 but it was later taken away from them and handed over to a company whose owners were also detained in an operation against the Imamoğlu-led criminal network.
He stated that they had no problem in acquiring permits from the municipality and paid all legal fees. “After Imamoğlu took office, they made the process more difficult for us. They ignored all regulations in place and started asking for cash in exchange for permits apart from legal fees,” he said.
For his part, Yırtıcı said the municipality changed regulations and transferred the duty of approving signages to another company of the municipality. “They started charging us informally. We had to pay and sign contracts, which said it was fees for 'design' and 'graphics.' These were done by municipality officials,” he said.
Yırtıcı claimed that these contracts were simply “something to cover up the crime of bribery.” He stated that two suspects arrested along with Imamoğlu who were serving as head of municipal departments, were behind irregularities in approving signages and billboards that contravened municipal regulations in place, implying that they were taking bribes in exchange.
Sedat Kapıdağ, another businessperson who testified in the case, was quoted as saying by Sabah that he rented billboards in 2019, shortly before Imamoğlu took office. He told investigators that his permits for the multiple billboards he owned were terminated and when he sought to reinstate them, he was rejected. When Kapıdağ pressed on, municipal officials allegedly threatened him.
“I filed a legal complaint in 2022 and they started threatening me and my son. They damaged billboards and other materials I owned in public spaces. Some shady types started threatening me,” he told investigators.
Prosecutors say Imamoğlu was among the leaders of a criminal network enriching themselves through bribes and rigged public tenders. On Sunday, along with Imamoğlu, the court in Istanbul ordered the arrest of his close aide, Murat Ongun, who served as head of a media company of the IBB, and Tuncay Yılmaz, director of the Imamoğlu family's construction company.
The Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul says the evidence, including testimonies of witnesses in an investigation into a notorious “money counting” video of CHP-linked people, implicated Imamoğlu and others. The video, leaked last year, is part of another investigation into allegations that the bags full of cash seen in the video were linked to “vote buying” for the CHP’s incumbent chair, Özgür Özel. Eyewitnesses told investigators that Imamoğlu and others pressured businesspeople via extortion, colluded with certain businesspeople to acquire illicit gains, were involved in money laundering through transactions using intermediaries and used people as “secret coffers” for the transfer of illegal gains.
A total of 100 suspects, including Imamoğlu, Ongun and Yılmaz, have been implicated in charges related to "being a leader of a criminal organization," "membership in a criminal organization," "bribery," "fraud," "illegal data acquisition" and "tampering with a tender."
Imamoğlu has denied all allegations in his interrogation, but prosecutors point out a wide array of evidence, from financial irregularities to bribes and money laundering activities. Those include reports from the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), technical surveillance data and testimonies from 25 witnesses, media outlets reported. The investigation also relied on reports from the Ministry of Interior and cross-referenced data.
Adem Soytekin and Ali Nuhoğlu, linked to Keleş, are identified as “financial handlers” of the criminal organization. Nuhoğlu is a businessperson who was captured with a large amount of cash hidden in his residence during operations to detain Imamoğlu and others. Authorities seized Nuhoğlu's companies as part of an investigation earlier this week.
