PARIS
Türkiye’s Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (SDIF) has won two cases in Paris against Erol Aksoy, an ex-banker convicted of embezzlement whose offices in France are under an interim injunction due to a ruling in Türkiye, according to one of the IF’s lawyers.
Stephanie Dalet Venot told Anadolu Agency that the Paris Judicial Court – a court of first instance – gave an enforcement decision on the charges filed against Aksoy in two different Istanbul commercial courts on Sept. 6.
The two judgments in Türkiye are thus valid in France, the lawyer said, adding that the French judge concluded that the rulings against Aksoy in Türkiye were upheld under the International French Public Order.
Aksoy, one of the founders of private Turkish TV channel Show TV, was sentenced in 2015 to over eight years in prison for embezzling deposits from Iktisat Bank, one of the banks that led to Türkiye’s 2001 economic crisis, according to an SDIF statement.
When the decision was upheld by the Supreme Court the next year, Aksoy fled.
In a 2006 protocol with the SDIF, Aksoy admitted that he had a debt of $1 billion, but he went into default because he did not fulfill the conditions of the protocol he signed.
The SDIF is trying to recover the public losses caused by the former banker. In addition, a bankruptcy case against Aksoy continues.
Aksoy claimed that there was no judicial independence in Türkiye, but the French court was unconvinced.
Aksoy’s claim that the Turkish courts took sides and gave unjustified decisions was contradicted by his presenting Turkish court decisions in his favor to the French court as evidence.
Contrary to Aksoy’s claim, the Paris court decided that there were justifications in both decisions taken by Turkish courts.
In a case filed by the SDIF against Aksoy in New York, US, the court decided that Aksoy and his daughter were not reliable witnesses because of their contradictory statements about the source of the money.
Meanwhile, the SDIF’s precautionary injunction against Aksoy’s two flats in Paris and his company in Luxembourg continues.
The SDIF won the case it filed in the US in 2021 after it was determined that Aksoy had bought a flat in New York for his daughter Eda Aksoy with the money he had smuggled from Türkiye.
The flat was sold for $1.7 million by court order and transferred to SDIF accounts.
