Billionaire Bankamatic Brothers Hit the Jackpot, in Samsun

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 22 March 2022)

                                              "What?"

Brothers Recep and Emre Gezek, who live in Samsun, transferred 16

billion TL (a bit over $1 billion!) to their own account from their bank's

system somehow.  Taking full advantage of this windfall, the brothers

bought luxury cars and telephones for themselves and sent money to

relatives so they could pay off their debts. 

Recep Gezek (26), who works at a gas station in Samsun, opened a 

joint bank account with his brother Emre Gezek.  They were able to

transfer billions of TL from the bank's investment account to their own,

making nearly 70 transactions in one day to put 16 billion TL in their

account. 

Subsequently, while going to a massage parlor (!) they encountered 

a police checkpoint and were found out.  Their account has been frozen

but the brothers were released under judicial supervision.  Now, a team

of digital security experts and finance inspectors are looking into the

incident.

Hürriyet has obtained the brothers' statements.  Herewith, Emre bey's:

"There was no money in the account so I looked at the bank's investment 

account and there was a menu item that read 'withdraw money' and then

'how much?'.  So I wrote an amount off the top of my head and each 

time I did that much money went into our account.  I did this 60-70 

times and it worked each time.  Right away, with the money I bought

myself a telephone and then sent 300,000 TL to a dealer for a BMW.

I withdrew 40,000 TL from an ATM. The total amount I got was 16

billion TL."

"I told my elders about it and we all agreed we should pay off all our

relatives' and neighbors' debts.   The bank put a stop on the account 

for a 'security reason' but then they lifted the stop.  Two days later 

they called my brother Recep, saying 'there's quite a bit of money in

your account. Where did it come from?'  In response, Recep told them

that 'my brother transferred it from the investment account to our 

savings account'.  Then they asked him 'you have this amount of 

investments?' and Recep answered 'if I didn't, I wouldn't have withdrawn

so much.'   Then they blocked the account again. We didn't hoodwink

anyone. I don't know how it happened.  We were going to donate the

money to the country." (!) 

As for Recep: "We got word to all our relatives and sent some of them

money, but then the bank called them and wanted the money returned.

If this was a crime why did they allow me to transfer money like this

for two days without blocking it?  I sent the money to my relatives as

a good-hearted gesture.  If I had bad intentions I would have taken the

16 billion TL and gone abroad."