Turkey's Capital Markets Board (SPK) said it had completed its review of trading in shipping company Özata Denizcilik and decided to file criminal complaints against 11 people. The regulator's bulletin recalled the “effective remorse” mechanism under Article 107/1 of the Capital Markets Law. To qualify, suspects must pay the Treasury twice the benefit they obtained or caused to be obtained, with a minimum payment of 500,000 Turkish lira.
The 11 include Emre Tezmen, chair of Tera Yatırım Holding, and Tera board member Emre Alkin. The SPK bulletin also published payment details. Critics object that the money goes to the Treasury rather than affected investors, so the mechanism may remove prison exposure without compensating people for their losses.
Ramazan Başak, a former deputy head of Turkey's financial crimes investigation authority MASAK, called the approach unfair and insufficiently deterrent. He contrasted it with the case of Seçil Erzan, who received a 102-year prison sentence in a fraud case. Başak also compared penalties for bank-account theft, which can reach 20 years, with the three-to-five-year terms he cited for stock-market fraud; under the mechanism, he said, paying twice the identified benefit to the state can avert prison while leaving investor losses unpaid.
The SPK separately imposed two-year trading bans on 11 people over allegedly manipulative Özata Denizcilik share transactions. Its review also led to two-year bans for 13 people and institutions, including Tera Yatırım and Tera Portföy, and the cancellation of all licenses held by five individuals. Economist İnan Mutlu summed up the mechanism as “pay the money and walk away,” while Başak called for the law to be revised and penalties increased. He said work on a revision had been under way since November 2025.