A Bribery Case: An Incident of “Gunpowder Bribery

Jul Fresko, Leon Fresko, Jak Basat, Solomon Nassi and Lütfi Bey were arrested by Kenan Bey, the public prosecutor of Istanbul on 5th July, 1929 based on the claims of “bribery” and “damaging the republic”. The reason for the arrest started to become evident with the initial interrogation. It revealed that a company, named as Ibrahim Beyzade Lutfi and His Associates Open Company, had been founded with a capital of 1.500.000 Liras, one half of which had been funded by the government and the other one by Lutfi Bey and his associates. The company monopolized the gunpowder and explosive goods sale in the country. However, the associates of the company sold the monopolization rights to a French Limited Company, Oriental Industrial Monopolist Limited Company, which was managed from Paris. After the completion of transfer transactions, Lutfi Bey and his associates winded up the company and decided to share the money taken from the French company among the associates. The case called “Gunpowder Bribery” broke out with the conflict among the associates. Numerous civil servants and the minister of finance were claimed to get involved in the case.