2 Turkish medical professors accused of 3 million-euro fraud
Eray Görgülü – ANKARA
Twenty people who have filed criminal complaints against two medical professors who they say committed a 3 million-euro fraud have been waiting for a year for the trial to start.
The victims’ lawyer, Sermin Gürbüz, said the trial process had not yet begun because new prosecutors were constantly being assigned to the case.
According to Gürbüz, there are 14 different investigations launched against the professors, who face charges of collecting 3 million euros from the plaintiffs for make-believe EU projects.
Following the complaints of the victims, Ankara prosecutors launched an investigation into the case on Feb. 12, 2018, leading to a court to ban the swindlers from leaving the country.
The fraud incident dates back to 2010, when one of the professors, identified only as F.F.E., started to offer people partnerships in the fake EU projects.
The professor’s spouse, an anatomy professor identified only as M.E., allegedly took part in the scam as well and started collecting “deposits” amounting to 70,000 euros from nearly 90 people.
A victim said he had deposited into 28 projects and has over 900,000 euros in receivables.
F.F.E., who was having a hard time in repayments, said the 3 million euros collected were stolen in front of the EU’s building in the capital Ankara on Feb. 12, 2018.
When the professor informed the victims over text messages, one of them had become suspicious and filed a complaint.
F.F.E. later confessed to the authorities that he lied about the money being stolen and said that “30 of his teams consisting of 90 people” had been working on these so-called EU projects.
“Reward payments from the EU were not done on time. They were to make the payment by hand on Feb. 12. When I found out that the payment was postponed to Feb. 23, I had a panic attack due to the intense pressures from the clients and told them that the money was usurped,” F.F.E said in a statement.
The EU Affairs Ministry has refuted all claims about the alleged projects and said both professors were not assigned to any project, directly or indirectly.
