Cevher Özden

Who was 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 to date. Both the chain of events during the scandal and himself are better known under the name of his banker's company at the time, that is, as Banker Kastelli, referring to the village near Sürmene, a town of Trabzon, where he was born. 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 the then Deputy Prime Minister Turgut Özal. 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 thousand people, and he attained much fame and notoriety.