The founder of payments company Papara was one of 13 people arrested in Turkey in a widespread illegal gambling sweep. Police detained Ahmed Faruk Karslı after conducting a series of early-morning raids on Tuesday. He faces several charges, including the creation and membership of a criminal organization and laundering criminal proceeds.
Law enforcement seized $128m worth of assets after uncovering that criminals were using Papara accounts to run an illegal betting scheme and launder the resulting profits. The seized items included 74 vehicles, yachts, and seven apartments.
funneled down to the crypto wallets of five people with links to four illegal sports betting sites
Over 26,000 Papara accounts conducted illegal gambling-related transactions totaling $330m, and the money ultimately funneled down to the crypto wallets of five people with links to four illegal sports betting sites.
Papara is a massively popular platform, having more than 23 million users and facilitating over 31 million monthly transactions. Its most recent valuation was for $2bn.
This isn’t the first time that a payments provider has come into the spotlight in Turkey for gambling-related matters. In March, the chairman of PayFix was arrested for similar reasons.
