Turkey's $20 Billion Fund Collapse Explained

Podcast · ~34 min · Listen · (gathered 2026-10-14)

• Patrick Boyle dissects the September 2026 collapse of Turkey’s $20 billion investment fund industry, led by Emre Tezmen’s Tera and Pusula, which defrauded over 455,000 investors through what Turkey’s justice minister called “Ponzi-like schemes.”
• The collapse stemmed from funds reporting astronomical returns (Tera claimed over 66,000%), allegedly inflating valuations of thinly traded Borsa Istanbul stocks, and exposing money market funds (which savers treated as cash) to these inflated shares via reverse repo loans.
• Boyle draws parallels to historical market manipulation and leverage seen in Bernie Cornfeld’s Investors Overseas Services and Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital, emphasizing how weak institutions and tiny fines enable bad actors to drive out honest businesses despite warnings from entities like MSCI.
• The incident serves as a stark warning about the dangers of unrealistic returns, the opacity of fund structures, and the systemic risks when “cash-like” investments are exposed to illiquid, manipulated assets.