Prosecutors accused 14 people – including Suleyman Aslan, the director of state-owned Halkbank, Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, and several family members of cabinet ministers – of bribery, corruption, fraud, money laundering and gold smuggling.
[2] The scheme started after Turkish government officials found a loophole in the U.S. sanctions against Iran that allowed them to access Iranian oil and gas.
In January 2013, the Obama administration decided to close this loophole but instead of immediately charging Halkbank, the U.S. government allowed its gold trading activities to continue until July 2013, because Turkey was an important ally regarding the American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War, and the U.S. had been working on a nuclear deal with Iran.
[3] On 17 December 2013, the Financial Crime Unit of the Istanbul Security Directorate detained 47 people, including officials from TOKİ (Housing Development Administration of Turkey), the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning, and the District Municipality of Fatih.
[6] Moreover, Egemen Bağış, the Minister of European Union Affairs, is cited in newspaper articles as a potential suspect of bribery related to Reza Zarrab who has business affiliations with Babak Zanjani.
[11] Prosecutors accused 14 people including Barış Güler, Kaan Çağlayan, Süleyman Aslan and Reza Zarrab of bribery, corruption, fraud, money laundering and smuggling gold.
[25] A heated controversy erupted after the release on YouTube of audio recordings in which Erdoğan was reportedly heard telling his son, Bilal, to urgently get rid of tens of millions of dollars.
[1] In late December, Hurriyet and Yeni Safak papers published comments by Erdoğan stating he believes he is the ultimate target of a corruption and bribery probe of his allies.
The ministers’ sons were questioned over the scandal focusing on alleged illicit money transfers to Iran and bribery for construction projects.
[27] Erdoğan blamed the investigation on an international conspiracy and vowed revenge on the Islamic community of the preacher Fethullah Gülen.
[38] Erdal Kalkan, a member of parliament in the constituency of İzmir from the ruling AKP, resigned from his party on 26 December because of the ongoing scandal.
[42] He also criticized the campaign of “insults” and “defamation” against Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and his Hizmet movement, which he considered an attempt to "eradicate a civil society movement.”[43] Erdoğan's government dismissed or reassigned thousands of police officers and hundreds of judges and prosecutors - including those leading the investigation - and passed a law increasing government control of the judiciary.
This included the removal of Minister for European Union and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bağış, another figure in the scandal, from office.
[48] On 23 December, 35-year-old Hakan Yüksekdağ, a police commissioner in the Smuggling and Battle Against Organized Crimes Department of the Ankara Province Security Directory, was found dead in his car.
[49] On 24 December, Abdi Altınok, an Assistant Chief of Police in the Isparta Province Security Directory, committed suicide.