Love Triangle Collapses on Lovers

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(Sabah Newspaper, 25 May 2012)

Prof. Dr. Osman Altuğ, head of the Accounting and Financing
branch of the Economy and Management Faculty at Marmara
University in Istanbul, fell in love with his student Pınar Değirmenci
and arranged for an apartment for her in Ataköy 2. Kısım in 2007.
Shortly afterwards, Değirmenci earned her doctorate and started
to date Osman Çırak, the former head of Giresunspor.

When this happened, Dr. Altuğ, who is married and has two
children, complained to the Finance Ministry's tax office that
companies owned or shared by Çırak were engaging in 'tax
evasion, fake invoices and invented exports.'  The tax office
started an investigation.

Dr. Altuğ and Değirmenci met for coffee and Değirmenci secretly
recorded their conversation, in which Dr. Altuğ warned Değirmenci
that Çırak, whose name had come up in a match-fixing scandal, was
not a reliable person. Çırak and Değirmenci then demanded 600,000
dolars from Dr. Altuğ for this taped conversation. The two sides
met at Dr. Altuğ's request in January, agreed on 575,000 dolars and
signed a protocol.

The protocol was arranged by all parties' lawyers via email with an
agreement that none of the information about these incidents would
be shared and stipulating sanctions and penalties for doing so. The
talks broke down, however, when Değirmenci's lawyer informed all
concerned that Değirmenci would not vacate the apartment that
Dr. Altuğ had purchased for her.

All concerned filed complaints and the prosecutor opened a case
against Dr. Altuğ for 'threatening by using the names of criminal
organizations and slander', asking for a sentence of 10.5 years.
Sentences requested for Çırak and Değirmenci by the prosecutor
were 4.6 years and 3.6 years, respectively.