Criminal Law: Fraud

Fraud under the Turkish Penal Code (Law No. 5237) is not simply lying for gain. The offence requires deceptive conduct capable of misleading someone who had a realistic opportunity to check, and that requirement is where most defences are won or lost. The difference between the basic offence and its aggravated form is a closed set of circumstances defined by statute — and the gap between them is large, both in sentence length and in what remains available afterwards.

That second point matters more than clients expect. Once a case crosses into the aggravated form, the sentencing floor rises above the ceilings for suspension and for deferral of the judgment, so outcomes that would otherwise be realistic disappear. Whether a bank or an information system was the instrument of the deception, or merely the channel through which money moved, is frequently the whole argument.

Restitution is the other lever. Turkish law reduces sentences substantially where loss is made good, and the size of the reduction depends on how early it happens — before the indictment is accepted, or before judgment.

The guides below cover the elements of the offence, the aggravating circumstances, cyber and payment fraud, and defence strategy. For the wider criminal picture see criminal defense and white-collar.