Prestigious university graduate among money counterfeiting gang
ISTANBUL
One of the members of a money counterfeiting gang detained last week in a raid in Istanbul’s Esenyurt neighborhood is a graduate of the prestigious Boğaziçi University’s economics department.
Sabri Ali Savaşman was reported to be the IT expert of the gang and took part in preparing the counterfeit money for the printing process.
Istanbul police confiscated about $271 million in fake U.S. $100 and $50 banknotes in a raid on an Istanbul printing press – the country’s biggest counterfeit currency seizure in recent years – on July 19.
The gang has been reported to have printed the fake money getting help from a Russian book.
The gang is believed to consist of eight members, six of whom have already been detained during the operation. They were later arrested by a court order.
The police is in the hunt for two more people: The leader Ali Atali, reported to have gathered the gang together six months ago, and Muhammet Üstün, the graphic designer of the fake money.
Among the arrested is a former police commissioner who was dismissed from duty on charges of membership to FETÖ, the group that is widely believed to have orchestrated the failed coup attempt of July 2016.
Authorities are investigating whether the money was connected to FETÖ.
Meanwhile, all of the fake money has been put up for exhibition in the garden of the Istanbul police’s headquarters in Vatan Street in the Fatih district.
