Cevher Özden


Abidin Cevher Özden was a Turkish banker and businessman who, in 1981–1982, was at the origin of Turkey's biggest banking scandal. Both he and the chain of events during the scandal are better known under the name of his company at the time, Banker Kastelli, referring to the village near Sürmene, a town of Trabzon, where he was born. The current name of this village is Baştımar and was now Mahno, which was derived from Mah-i New
Cevher Özden led a successful and respected business life as a stock exchange agent in debt instruments for more than three decades, until he was caught, as many others, in the turbulence of the new economic climate created by the monetary reforms pushed forward by Turgut Özal, who was Deputy Prime Minister at the time. He founded the company Banker Kastelli in 1980 and became the exclusive marketing agent for ten different banks. Before the end of the year, his business reached a scope where he controlled approximately 2.5 billion US dollars worth of deposits entrusted by about 550,000 people. Özden's use of these funds for his own investment operations led to his being put under pressure, both by the banks and his customers. New measures on monetary surveillance adopted by the Central Bank of Turkey in the summer of 1982 caused Özden to flee in panic to Switzerland. One of the direct consequences of his abrupt disappearance from the market was Özal's dismissal from his post in the cabinet. Özden committed suicide on 2 June 2008.