PayFix board member Erkan Kork has been arrested alongside other numerous suspects over alleged involvement in facilitating payments for illegal online gambling activity.
Reports out of Turkey revealed that Kork, who is also a board member of the small Turkish bank BankPozitif, was arrested on Monday as part of a wider probe into illegal betting and gaming operations Turkish authorities are suspicious of.
As part of the investigation, PayFix and BankPozitif have been seized by Turkish authorities alongside relevant affiliates.
Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board found this month that more than 80,000 different money transfers were identified within PayFix’s system across over 211,000 different accounts.
This activity alerted the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office of Organised Crime Investigation Bureau, who subsequently launched the investigation over the alleged belief of illegal betting being facilitated by Kork and PayFix.
Including Kork, 59 other individuals have been detained by Turkish authorities after making further discoveries that 855 PayFix accounts were found to be linked to illegal online gambling activity.
The Financial Crimes Investigation Board found that PayFix processed more than 50 million betting transactions that were valued at up to TRY4bn, which were redirected to cryptocurrency exchanges.
Allegedly, Kork was arrested over his alleged involvement and is facing potential charges of illegal laundering of unauthorised payments from unlicensed gambling operators in Turkey.
The country enforces strong gambling regulations, in particular online gambling, which apart from state-run operators, is outright banned.
