Former Turkish minister cashes in with urban transformation
▻http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/former-turkish-minister-cashes-in-with-urban-transformation.aspx?
The family of Erdoğan Bayraktar, who was implicated in the massive corruption probe in December 2013, has earned up to 72.4 million Turkish Liras ($27.6 million) thanks to an urban transformation project pushed by Bayraktar during his tenure as the Environment and Urbanization Minister.
The company run by the Bayraktar family bought a 10,000-square-meter plot of land in Istanbul’s Koşuyolu neighborhood for $22 million in 2013. The former minister had said at the time that there was no conflict of interest, describing the purchase as “an innocent investment.”
However, the family recently sold the land to a developer for 114.4 million Turkish Liras ($43.9 million), daily Hürriyet has learned. The massive profit that the Bayraktars earned in just two years is thanks to a recent change in the legal status of the plot.