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TURKEY
Top MENA ransomware target
FRAUD TYPES
Ransomware victim, crypto fraud, call center scams
KEY FACTS
Most ransomware-targeted country in the Middle East (CloudSEK). GI-TOC criminality score 7.20.
REPORT FRAUD IN TURKEY1▸
No agency for Turkey in our directory yet.
See all countries we cover ▸
Search the Report Fraud directory.
BORN HERE▸
Nobody in our case files was born in Turkey yet.
OPERATED HERE▸
Nobody in our case files is documented as operating from Turkey yet.
FRAUD METHODS TIED HERE1▸
From the Global Fraud Encyclopedia and the cases above. Tap a method for its page.
#3 RansomwareEncyclopedia ▸KNOWN FOR▸
THE PICTURE▸
Turkey has had some of the largest retail-investor collapses in the region. The Thodex crypto exchange shut in April 2021, locking about 400,000 users out of their funds; its founder got 11,196 years in 2023 and died in prison in 2025 (Decrypt, 2025; Turkish Minute, 2025). The Çiftlik Bank farm-game Ponzi led to 45,376-year sentences in February 2025 (The National, 2025). Turkish figures also appear in cross-border cases, including the Halkbank/Zarrab Iran sanctions-evasion scheme prosecuted in New York and the $133M Washakie biodiesel laundering case in Utah. The Interior Ministry and gendarmerie regularly raid illegal-betting and online-fraud networks moving billions of lira (Hürriyet Daily News, 2024). Turkey left the FATF grey list in June 2024.
TOP FRAUDSTERS FROM HERE5▸
Faruk Fatih Özer CONVICTEDREPORT PENDING
~$2bn reported user deposits frozen (media estimate); indictment damages TRY 356M (~$43M) · 2017–2021
Founder of the Thodex crypto exchange, which shut suddenly in 2021 and left users unable to withdraw; fled to Albania, was extradited and died in prison in November 2025.
SOURCE: Decrypt / Turkish Minute, 2025
Reza Zarrab PLEADED GUILTYREPORT PENDING
Billions of dollars (Iranian oil proceeds moved) · 2010–2016
Turkish-Iranian gold trader who laundered Iranian oil money through Halkbank as fake gold and food trades; became a cooperating witness.
SOURCE: OCCRP / Courthouse News, Jul 2026
Mehmet Hakan Atilla CONVICTEDREPORT PENDING
Billions of dollars (sanctions-evasion scheme) · 2012–2016
Former Halkbank deputy general manager convicted of helping Iran evade US sanctions.
SOURCE: US DOJ SDNY, Jan 2018
Sezgin Baran Korkmaz CHARGEDREPORT PENDING
$133M+ (alleged laundering) · 2013–2018
Turkish businessman accused of laundering proceeds of the Kingston family's $1bn+ Washakie biodiesel tax-credit fraud through accounts in Turkey and Luxembourg.
SOURCE: US DOJ D. Utah, Jul 2022
Mehmet Aydın CONVICTEDREPORT PENDING
Undisclosed (thousands of investors) · 2016–2018
Founder of Çiftlik Bank, an online 'farm' investment game that ran as a Ponzi scheme; fled to Brazil, returned 2021.
SOURCE: The National, 3 Feb 2025
FRAUD BY CATEGORY▸
No official body here publishes a breakdown of fraud by type, so we show none rather than guess.
KEY NUMBERS▸
~400,000 Thodex users unable to withdraw when the exchange shut (April 2021) (Decrypt, 2025)
11,196 years Sentence for the Thodex founder and two siblings (Sept 2023) (Ubergizmo / Decrypt, 2023)
45,376 years Sentence for the Çiftlik Bank founder (Feb 2025) (The National, Feb 2025)
TRY 3.6bn Money flows linked to 35 suspects in one gendarmerie fraud/betting sweep (Hürriyet Daily News, 2024)
WHO FIGHTS IT▸
Turkish Penal Code arts. 157–158 (aggravated fraud, including via IT systems or banks); cybercrime departments of the police (EGM) and gendarmerie.
MASAK (financial intelligence unit); crypto-asset service provider law of 2024; FATF grey-list exit in June 2024.
Major operations: Thodex extradition from Albania (2023), repeated illegal-betting and online-fraud raids under Interior Minister Yerlikaya (2024–2025).
SOURCES▸
Decrypt, Jan 2025
Turkish Minute, 1 Nov 2025
The National, 3 Feb 2025
US DOJ SDNY, Jan 2018
Courthouse News / OCCRP, Jul 2026
US DOJ D. Utah, 2022
Hürriyet Daily News, 2024
Case lists and figures compiled September 2026 from court records, regulators and major press; statuses change. Series reports above are fact-checked case files.