Former Turkish Central Bank deputy governor arrested for fraud at state-backed payment body – Turkish Minute
Former Turkish Central Bank Deputy Governor Emrah Şener has been arrested as part of a corruption and tender-rigging investigation into the Interbank Card Center (BKM), the country’s main payment-processing network, in which the central bank holds a majority stake.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office announced on Friday that seven people, including Şener, 47, and former BKM CEO Baran Aytaş, had been taken into custody over multiple allegations of misconduct related to two main BKM tenders, the “smart-card procurement” and “Troy specification and applet software development” contracts from 2023.
Prosecutors said the investigation also covers alleged unlawful service procurements from Boğaziçi Technology Transfer Office Inc. and Be Bold Advertising Software Ltd. without any formal bidding process; payments made to students studying abroad through meal-card accounts under the pretext of funding research projects; and the misuse of a corporate credit card assigned to former BKM CEO Aytaş, which was allegedly used for personal expenses in violation of internal regulations.
According to the statement an internal audit in October 2024 flagged potential misconduct, prompting the central bank to file a criminal complaint in December.
Journalist İsmail Saymaz reported that the alleged misconduct caused more than 100 million lira ($2.3 million) in public losses.
Halk TV reported that Şener denied any involvement in the tenders or transactions conducted by BKM, according to his testimony to prosecutors.
The İstanbul 2nd Criminal Court of Peace ordered the pretrial detention of seven suspects — Şener, Aytaş, Bora Koç, Mehmet Fatih Demirbaş, Birol Kanbir, Osman Arslan and Muhammed Güven — who were among 10 people detained in a police operation on October 10. Three suspects were released under judicial supervision, while four others are believed to have fled abroad.
The prosecutor’s office said the investigation is continuing under a confidentiality order.
Opposition lawmakers have sharply criticized the corruption allegations involving the central bank subsidiary, with Turhan Çömez, a lawmaker from the nationalist opposition İYİ (Good) Party, directly addressing Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek on X.
“The man you proudly described as ‘one of the best and brightest economists’ and appointed as deputy governor has been arrested for defrauding the public of 100 million lira. In the UK, even those who vouched for such a fraudster would be held accountable,” he wrote, citing a 2016 tweet of the minister.
💫Senin “en iyi ve en parlak ekonomistlerden biri” dediğin ve gururla takdim edip TCMB Başkan Yardımcısı yaptığın adam,
💰Kamuyu 100 milyon TL dolandırdığı için tutuklanmış haberin oldu mu @memetsimsek ?
👉Kamu derken, hepimizi yani seni de dolandırmış!
🇬🇧İngiltere de olsa, böyle… pic.twitter.com/nraC9Z2XyN— Turhan Çömez (@ComezTurhan) October 17, 2025
Şener started his banking career in 2003 at HSBC Holdings Plc and Citibank in London, later serving as vice president at Bank of America Corp.’s structured products group. He served on the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee from 2016 to 2023 and was widely reported to have helped design an unorthodox policy of foreign exchange sales through state banks, later known as the “$128 billion controversy.”
The figure refers to the dollars sold by state banks to support the Turkish lira in foreign exchange markets between 2019 and 2020, when the pandemic exposed the currency’s vulnerability and Turkey’s dependence on external funding. Bankers estimated that the total sales reached $128.3 billion.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan defended the policy as necessary to stabilize the economy, while critics argued it depleted reserves, left the country more exposed to crisis and lacked transparency.
