Crypto fraud scam in Turkey: How they went from 'affiliation with Israel' to blaming a 'Mossad cell'

He added: “One by one, we will cut off the supply lines of the enemies of the people and the homeland, who feed off the terror industry. We are determined to do so and, God willing, we will succeed.”

According to a statement issued by Turkish authorities Friday, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, together with Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, or MIT, police and Interpol, raided hundreds of addresses in Istanbul and Mugla province and arrested more than 201 suspects out of about 240 who were indicted.

According to prosecutors, the network operated under the cover of dozens of ostensibly “legitimate” companies in the forex and cryptocurrency sectors, ran call centers and extracted more than $3 billion from victims around the world.

Turkish Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said the network was headed by “Israeli fraud barons,” while the indictment reportedly refers to figures “linked to Israel.” Turkish media published the names of nine Israeli citizens who were arrested and were allegedly employed at the network’s customer service centers.

It is no secret that in today’s Turkey, the moment Israel’s name is linked to any affair, it automatically becomes a major headline. Anyone with a political agenda uses Israel to gain public support, and sometimes also the personal favor of President Erdogan. In that sense, there is nothing surprising about the scale of the coverage the affair has received.