The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched a money laundering investigation into two Turkish companies owned by Turkish Cypriot fintech entrepreneur Ozan Özerk.
Özerk, who carries a Norwegian passport and is the national of the Republic of Cyprus according to UK company documents, has not been named a suspect in the ongoing investigation in Turkey. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor did not respond to questions about his status and whereabouts.
Turkish officials are investigating individuals and companies associated with Özerk’s Turkish company, Ozan Elektronik Para A.Ş., an electronic money institution. The company“ was used to introduce criminal assets into the financial system under the guise of legitimate commercial activity,” the Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on October 31. The criminal assets are linked to illegal betting activities, the statement added.
The Turkish investigators have also alleged a second company, Aveon Global Sigorta A.Ş., which is an insurance company majority-owned by Özerk, injected “criminal proceeds” into the financial system disguised as insurance premiums. Aveon previously had its authority to conclude new insurance contracts suspended in December 2024 by Turkey’s Insurance and Private Pension Regulation and Supervision Board.
UK corporate records confirm that Özerk is the beneficial owner of the targeted Turkish companies. Ozan Elektronik Para A.Ş. was incorporated in Turkey in 2018 by UK-registered Ozan Limited, which is owned by another UK company, Superapps Holding Limited, whose beneficial owner is listed as Özerk. Aveon Global Sigorta A.Ş. was founded in Turkey in 2020, by UK-registered Aveon Global Holding Limited, whose beneficial owner is listed as Özerk.
The Prosecutor’s Office said in a November 7 statement that it had seized assets worth 72 million TL (EUR1.5 million), and orders were issued to detain 11 employees in relation to funds derived from “illegal betting activities.” This followed an operation a week earlier in which assets worth about 402 million TL (EUR.8.2 million) were seized and six executives were arrested.
In the same statement, the Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had strong evidence that not only the senior management of the company, but also former board members, employees at the information technology department, risk management staff, internal audit staff, software developers and finance and accounting managers were involved in the money laundering activities.
Aveon did not respond to a request for comment while Ozan Elektronik Para A.Ş. has publicly confirmed that Turkish authorities have appointed a trustee to run the company in accordance with an October 31 court decision. “Upon completion of the compliance procedures and controls required by legislation and by the ongoing investigation, the return of customer and merchant funds will commence,” Ozan Elektronik said in a statement posted to LinkedIn last week.
Ozan Elektronik’s board members include a previous head of Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board and the former head of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Turkish Central Bank.
Özerk’s other money business companies also hold financial licenses from regulators in the UK, Malta, Canada, U.S. and EU.
In a cross-border investigation, the Scam Empire, earlier this year, reporters found that two other Özerk companies processed transactions for scam call centres. The story exposed that employees of the call centers convinced thousands of people to make “investments” on fake trading platforms. A call center in Cyprus was part of an operation based in Israel that appears to have targeted 26,810 individuals around the world.
Payments from victims were sent through a variety of companies, including Özerk’s Malta-registered payment processing company OpenPayd, and European Merchant Bank, a small financial institution in Lithuania also known as EM Bank.
Reporters found that at least 2.5 million euros ($2.9 million) had entered and exited an OpenPayd account held by a company that operated suspected sham platforms used by the scammers.
OpenPayd told reporters at that time that “it monitors all transactions to/from its clients for fraud or other financial crime red flags, including through a comprehensive fraud monitoring programme designed to combat fraud from end customers.”
In regard to ongoing money laundering investigation into by Turkish authorities, the company said: “This matter does not affect OpenPayd’s operations or the services provided to its clients as the UBO [ultimate beneficial owner, Özerk] has no involvement in the board of directors or management teams of the respective OpenPayd entities.”
Özerk did not respond to phone calls or text messages to his personal line, or to messages to his companies. However, he did speak to a journalist from Norway’s VG by phone before Scam Empire was published and said he was “not involved in those companies other than as a shareholder,” adding that both OpenPayd and EM Bank have protections to prevent their systems from being abused by criminals.
“Fraud occurs despite all the measures we put in place,” he said at the time. “We take it very seriously.”
EM Bank said it could not comment on the payments uncovered by reporters in the Scam Empire project, saying it is “prohibited from disclosing information that relates to current or former clients,” but noted that it takes action at any indication of “fraud exposure.”
The bank said it was aware of the Turkish investigation, and “considers the topic as a reputational risk and takes relevant actions in line with its internal regulations.”
“We would like to emphasize that these developments are entirely unrelated to European Merchant Bank,” the institution said, adding that “our understanding is that the allegations are directed at Ozan Elektronik Para A.Ş. and not against Ozan Ozerk.”
Özerk has an investment firm in Cyprus named Eurotrade Investments RGB Limited. The company is licensed by the financial regulatory agency of Cyprus, CySEC. The financial regulator told CIReN that there would be an assessment if an owner of a CySEC-regulated firm was convicted of a criminal offense, but noted that the current charges relate to non CySEC-regulated companies.
Šarūnas Černiauskas (Siena.lt), Jacob Borg (Times of Malta) and Eiliv Frich Flydal (VG) contributed reporting.