Korkmaz Yiğit (born 1943 in

Erzincan Erzincan (; ), historically Yerznka (), is the capital of Erzincan Province in eastern Turkey. Nearby cities include Erzurum, Sivas, Tunceli, Bingöl, Elazığ, Malatya, Gümüşhane, Bayburt, and Giresun. The city is majority Turkish Sunni w ...

) is a Turkish businessman. He made his fortune in construction, and expanded into finance and media, but fell rapidly from grace in 1998 when apparent connections with mob figure

Alaattin Çakıcı Aladdin (, commonly ) (various spellings and transliterations) is a male given name which means "nobility of faith" or "nobility of creed/religion". It is one of a large class of names ending with ad-Din. The name may refer to: Given name *Ala al ...

were revealed.

Career

After making his fortune in construction, Yiğit sought to move into finance in the mid-1990s. He bid in the privatization tender for Etibank, and after this was unsuccessful bought Bankekspres from

Doğuş Holding Doğuş () is a Turkish name and may refer to: * Doğuş Balbay, Turkish basketball player * Doğuş Holding, one of the top three largest private-sector conglomerates in Turkey * Doğuş University, private university in İstanbul See also * ...

for $100m in March 1997. In 1998, he acquired private television stations Kanal E and Tele 4, and then Kanal 6 (the latter for $110m). In August 1998, he bought the '' Ateş'' and '' Yeni Yüzyıl'' newspapers ($75m), and in early October he acquired control of ''

Milliyet ''Milliyet'' ( Turkish for "''nationality''") is a daily newspaper published in Istanbul, Turkey. History and profile ''Milliyet'' came to publishing life at the Nuri Akça press in Babıali, Istanbul as a daily private newspaper on 3 May 1950 ...

'' ($300m). In August 1998, he had won the privatization tender for the majority of Türk Ticaret Bankası, with a $600m bid, but after apparent connections with mob figure

were revealed in October, known as the " Türkbank scandal", the deal was put on hold on 14 October pending a parliamentary inquiry. The Doğan Media Group bought back ''Milliyet'' on 22 October. Bankekspres was seized by the government for a symbolic TL1bn. Yiğit was jailed pending trial, accused of conspiracy in the Turkbank privatization and of defrauding Bankekspres. In 2007, TMSF took some of Yiğit's companies in part-payment of debts owed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yigit, Korkmaz 1943 births Living people People from Erzincan Turkish businesspeople Turkish mass media owners Corruption in Turkey Turkish bankers Turkish newspaper publishers (people) Yeni Yüzyıl people