Heavy Sanctions for Stock Market Manipulation: New Bill Heading to Turkish Parliament

Comprehensive Oversight with New Regulation A new regulation prepared in cooperation with the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and the Capital Markets Board (SPK) aims to conduct a more effective fight against market manipulation.
The draft study covers not only those who directly perform manipulative acts but also individuals and groups acting in coordination with them.
This is intended to create a broader audit mechanism against irregular transactions in the market.
Increased Prison Sentences and Prevention of Deferrals While the current regulation imposes prison sentences of 3 to 5 years for market fraud, the new draft proposes raising these limits.
The primary goal of the change is to prevent practices such as the "deferral of the announcement of the verdict," which effectively hinder the implementation of sentences, thereby increasing the deterrence of sanctions.
Financial Sanctions and the Reasonable Suspicion Criterion According to the new bill, administrative fines of at least twice the amount of profit obtained from irregular transactions will be applied.
Furthermore, the audit mechanism will be able to take action based on "reasonable suspicion" in addition to concrete evidence.
Those who participate in market-disrupting actions or those for whom there is reasonable suspicion of acting together will be included within the scope of the sanctions.
License Revocation and Fund Auditing Clear sanctions are being introduced against manipulation carried out through investment funds, which are difficult to audit due to their lack of legal personality.
Heavy penalties, ranging up to license revocation, will be legally established for portfolio management companies and their executives if they mediate manipulative transactions.
The draft, which is undergoing final evaluations, is expected to be submitted to the Presidency of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) shortly.