Cem Uzan
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Cem Cengiz Uzan (born 26 December 1960, Istanbul) is a Turkish businessman and politician involved in the media and banking industries, while also chairing the social liberal Young Party (GENÇPARTİ). His family's media empire (Uzan Group) at one time included both television stations and print media. His family was one of Turkey's most influential families. His supporters claim Uzan's political rivalry resulted in the group's companies being seized by the government under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,[1] eventually resulting in Uzan's flight to France to escape what he claimed was political persecution. He has been sentenced in absentia to jail terms in the United Kingdom, United States and Turkey for fraud-related offences.[2] Uzan attempted to buy three units of Trump World Tower, but he ultimately defaulted on the contract and lost an $8 million deposit.[3]
Cem Uzan announced his intention to run for president in 2023 Turkish presidential election[4] but his application for presidential candidacy was rejected by the Supreme Election Council (YSK) due to the reason of application were not made to the council in person. [5]
Cem Uzan was born in Istanbul on 26 December 1960, to businessmen Kemal Uzan and Melahat Uzan.[6] He has two siblings named Ayşegül and Hakan Uzan. He completed high school at Istanbul German High School and received his bachelor's degree in business administration from Pepperdine University in the US.
Professional career
He founded many of the firsts on the Turkish media industry such as the first commercial TV channel 'Star TV', first entertainment TV channel 'Teleon TV', first music-oriented TV channel 'Kral TV', and first Turkish cinema and series channels 'Yeşilçam TV' and 'Dizi TV'; first commercial radio channel 'Süper FM', first arabesque music radio 'Kral FM', first foreign music radio 'Metro FM' and first slow music radio 'Joy FM'; as well as first digital media platform 'Star Digital'.
He also founded the telecommunication company Telsim which implemented many technological advances such as GPRS, MMS, WAP and Push to talk in Turkey as first and as well as one of the first ones worldwide.
The Star newspaper which he owned had the highest circulation in Turkey.
Uzan was also involved in soccer. He at one point owned İstanbulspor, transferring several star players into the team such as Sergen Yalçın, Aykut Kocaman, and Oğuz Çetin.[7]
The concession agreements for Çukurova and Kepez Electric companies which were managed by the Uzan family, were cancelled in June 2003. On 3 July 2003, İmarbank and Adabank were seized. In February 2004, the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), took over the management of 219 companies owned by Uzans which many of them had precautionary measures in place as part of the İmarbank investigation.
In 2008, a lawsuit was filed against him for fraud and embezzlement within the scope of the İmarbank investigation. On 29 March 2013, the court ruled that Cem Uzan had transferred a total of 1,468,240,378 TL belonging to the bank to himself and other Uzan family members in an aggravated manner by using fraudulent means to prevent the embezzlement from being revealed and Uzan was sentenced to 18 years, 5 months and 20 days in prison,[8] which then his sentence was determined as 9 years and 2 months under the Execution Law.[9]
