Turkish authorities seize the crypto assets of a criminal bookie

Authorities in Turkey have seized a serious amount of cryptocurrency as part of a probe against the alleged leader of an illegal betting network.

The move aims to prevent the laundering of illicit money, officials said, and affects other assets of the suspect who fled the country after an earlier release from prison.

Turkish state goes after betting baron’s crypto holdings

Turkey’s law enforcement has seized property and funds belonging to a man well known in the country for organizing unlawful betting and gambling.

Veysel Şahin, who has already spent time in prison until 2023, is now believed to be hiding abroad. He is suspected of controlling a massive network worth billions.

On Friday, Turkish authorities announced they have managed to freeze assets belonging to the suspect, including cryptocurrency holdings worth €460 million (over $546 million).

Quoted by local media, the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul said the seizure was carried out within an investigation into Şahin’s operations.

These included providing infrastructure and support to illegal betting sites and facilitating gambling activities outside the law, Türkiye Today reported.

The probe was launched following allegations of money laundering linked to the Ekol TV channel, based on statements made by a protected witness and tips from other undisclosed sources.

Acting on a report by Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), prosecutors ordered the freezing of Şahin’s coins held with global crypto platforms.

The man is widely known to the Turkish public as an illegal betting baron, the online edition of the daily Hürriyet wrote in an article, elaborating:

“Within the scope of the investigation, authorities ordered the ex officio seizure of assets believed to have been obtained through criminal activity in order to prevent their laundering.”

These measures covered the confiscation of Veysel Şahin’s movable and immovable property, the newspaper noted.

It detailed that this included company shares and partnership stakes, deposits and investment accounts held at banks and other financial institutions, as well as money kept on cryptocurrency exchanges.

Millions of dollars’ worth of digital assets were found in an account opened with an international crypto company and frozen with its cooperation.

Şahin is not a new face in Turkey

The name Veysel Şahin first caught the attention of the Turkish public in 2017, when security forces carried out an operation against his network codenamed “Handicap.”

At the time, he was detained when he returned to Turkey to seek medical treatment for his father. The betting boss was eventually arrested on a court order.

While his whereabouts have been unknown since he left the country a few years ago, extradition proceedings to bring him back are already underway.

The current probe against him is led by the Smuggling, Narcotics and Economic Crimes Investigation Bureau of the prosecutor’s office in the largest Turkish city.

His latest charges include violating the Republic of Turkey’s law that regulates betting and games of chance in football and other sports, and laundering proceeds from crime.

The authors of the MASAK report conclude that Şahin has obtained “unjust financial gains” as a result of him organizing illegal betting activities in the country.

Turkey, where cryptocurrencies have been gaining popularity, largely due to its inflation-ridden economy, has had its fair share of crypto-related crime in recent history.

For example, Turks and other investors lost an estimated $2.6 billion in the wake of the collapse of a cryptocurrency exchange called Thodex in 2021.

The founder of the infamous trading platform, Faruk Fatih Özer, fled to Albania, allegedly with a lot of customer money, was later caught, extradited and sentenced to more than 11,000 years behind bars in 2023.

Last fall, he was found dead in his prison cell in what authorities described as an apparent suicide by hanging, although Turkish media reports highlighted suspicious circumstances surrounding his ending.

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