Rock star and charity founder Haluk Levent is accused of using donations to his high-profile NGO for his own purposes.
Hamdi Firat Buyuk
Turkish celebrity Haluk Levent and 13 others were arrested on Thursday by a court in Istanbul for alleged financial misconduct in charity operations. rock star Levent was the founder of Ahbap, an NGO that collected millions of euros in donations, particularly around the Turkish earthquake disaster in 2023.
Prosecutors accuse him of “money laundering, violating Turkey’s Associations Law, and membership of a criminal organisation”.
According to the prosecution, the case involves about 2.22 million euros in allegedly improper transfers, 18.34 million euros in alleged betting transactions and 7.22 million euros in alleged losses related to those betting transactions.
There is also a separate 52.6-million-euro real-estate-related complaint from a businessman who claims he donated real estate in memory of his daughter to Ahbap, which he says Levent never used for charity purposes or returned.
Levent has denied all the allegations.
“Ahbap has absolutely nothing to do with my personal financial dealings or private debts and receivables. Despite this, there is a persistent attempt to link the organisation to them,” he said on Wednesday, admitting financial difficulties due to his stock exchange operations.
Yeliz Kaya, Levent’s assistant, is alleged to have played a central role in the financial transactions under investigation, claiming she acted under Levent’s instructions and that he used her bank accounts for his own reasons.
“Haluk Levent used me. Because of him, I ended up in debt to banks and maxed out my credit cards,” Kaya told the court on Thursday.
Ahbap [“friend” in Turkish] was founded by Levent in 2017, focusing on humanitarian aid, disaster relief, education, healthcare, environmental projects, and social assistance for people in need.
During the earthquake disaster in Turkey in 2023, Ahbap became one of the country’s largest independent relief organisations, partly due to widespread mistrust of state organisations. It reportedly collected nearly 56 million euros at that time.
It organised emergency search-and-rescue support, distributed food, water, tents, heaters, generators, and medical supplies, provided temporary shelter, and later financed housing and reconstruction projects in the affected regions.
Levent was convicted of various offences back in the 1990s, primarily for financial crimes, such as issuing bad cheques and fraud. After founding Ahbap, he rebuilt his public image through charitable work and in public surveys he was one of the most trusted people in the country.
