Some 13 people have been arrested, including the founder of the Papara online payment platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Turkey.- Some 13 people<\/strong> have been arrested in Turkey as part of an investigation into alleged illegal gambling operations. Those arrested include Ahmed Faruk Karsl\u0131<\/strong>, the founder and CEO of the online payment platform Papara<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turkish media report that a series of raids<\/strong> was conducted in Istanbul from around 5am local time yesterday (Tuesday 27 May). Karsl\u0131 reportedly faces charges of establishing and being a member of a criminal organisation and laundering proceeds from crime.\u00a0Authorities seized assets worth TL5 billion (\u20ac113m).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, these include eight companies<\/strong> led by PPR Holding Inc, yachts, five boats, three safe deposit boxes, 74 vehicles and seven apartments and villas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interior minister Ali Yerlikaya<\/strong> said an investigation by the Istanbul Provincial Police Department\u2019s Cyber \u200b\u200bCrimes Combating Branch Directorate had led to a probe by the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK). This found that over 26,000 Papara accounts<\/strong> had been used to move illicit funds and finance illegal betting, with some TL12.9bn (\u20ac291.6m) in bets allegedly moved to 274 accounts and then to crypto wallets <\/strong>belonging to five people linked to four illegal betting sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two months ago, PayFix\u2019s chairman Erkan Kork<\/strong> and others were arrested in relation to alleged money laundering and the operation of an unauthorised betting network. Turkey\u2019s Central Bank suspended PayFix\u2019s operations as well as those of Aypara and Ininal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yerlikaya said: \u201cIllegal betting is a crime that threatens the future of not only individuals but also society. \u201cWe continue our fight against illegal betting and cyber fraud with determination for the safety of our citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Papara was founded in 2015 <\/strong>to provide online money transfers, foreign-exchange and bill-payment services. It also offers a prepaid card, insurance and investment products. The company says it has more than 23m personal users and 1m business users making 31m transactions a month. It had reached an estimated valuation of $2bn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some 13 people have been arrested, including the founder of the Papara online payment platform. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":777011924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Turkish authorities have arrested 13 individuals, including Papara founder Ahmed Faruk Karsl\u0131, as part of an investigation into alleged illegal gambling operations and money laundering. The probe, which seized assets worth TL5 billion, found over 26,000 Papara accounts used to facilitate illicit funds for illegal betting, leading to the suspension of several payment platforms by Turkey's Central Bank.","focusai_entities":"Ahmed Faruk Karsl\u0131, Papara, PPR Holding Inc, PayFix, Erkan Kork, Aypara, Ininal, Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, Ali Yerlikaya, Istanbul Provincial Police Department\u2019s Cyber \u200b\u200bCrimes Combating Branch Directorate, Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), Turkey's Central Bank","focusai_location":"Turkey, Istanbul","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.98), compliance_legal (0.97), operator_casino (0.85), tech_data (0.75), payments_fraud_aml (0.99), investor_analyst (0.96), supplier_vendor (0.88), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Papara's Future?","query":"Given the arrests and asset seizures, what is the projected operational and financial impact on Papara's business continuity and its valuation, particularly concerning its B2B and B2C licensing status?"},{"label":"Regulatory Precedent?","query":"How might this aggressive regulatory enforcement action by MASAK and Turkey's Central Bank set a precedent for payment service provider liability in other jurisdictions combating illegal iGaming and financial crime?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,16334],"tags":[23919,20326,24764],"class_list":["post-777027039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-south-asia-news","tag-cryptocurrencies","tag-illegal-gambling","tag-money-laundering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777027039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777027039"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777027039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777027058,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777027039\/revisions\/777027058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777011924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777027039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777027039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777027039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}