İbrahim Ömer Gönül, who served as chairman of the Capital Markets Board (SPK) between April 2022 and April 2026, said the regulator carried out the necessary inspections during his tenure
Gönül was summoned to testify as a suspect in an ongoing fund-related investigation led by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
“We conducted the necessary audits during our term,” Gönül told daily Hürriyet. “We also imposed administrative fines on some of the funds in question. Certain investigations that we initiated were completed by the management that succeeded us,” he added.
When asked whether a thousand-fold increase in a stock could escape the attention of the SPK and how the alleged manipulation in the funds had gone undetected, Gönül said: “Supervision and surveillance are rigorous. Manipulation or any other irregular activity does not go unnoticed. Of course, nothing is ever 100 percent certain.”
“If the public shows strong demand for a stock, we cannot immediately label that as manipulation. We must investigate and gather evidence. This is not something that can be completed overnight; it typically takes three to four months,” he said.
