Dinç Bilgin (born 1940)[1] is a Turkish businessman who founded the Bilgin Group and Medya Holding, a media empire that was made up of a number of newspapers including Sabah (1985) and Takvim (1994), and a number of television stations, including ATV (1993) these were voluntarily handed over to the Turkish government in 2008 over alleged financial irregularities relating to Etibank. These companies were later sold by TMSF for $ 1.1 Billion. He also founded Ateş and Yeni Yüzyıl in 1995, selling them to Korkmaz Yiğit in 1998.
Career
Bilgin began his career at Yeni Asır.[1] He founded a number of newspapers including Sabah (1985) and Takvim (1994), and a number of television stations, including ATV (1993). He also founded the now-defunct Ateş and Yeni Yüzyıl in 1995, selling them to Korkmaz Yiğit in 1998.[2]
Etibank was privatised on 2 March 1998 to Medya İpek Holding A.Ş.,[3] co-owned by Bilgin and Cavit Çağlar, for $155m.[4] The bank was sold to Bilgin's Medya Sabah Holding A.Ş. in 2000. It was taken over by the government's TMSF in October 2000.[3] In 2011, Bilgin was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for financial irregularities relating to his ownership of Etibank.[5]
References
- 1 2 Today's Zaman, 24 June 2012, Dinç Bilgin: The military would stage a coup again if they could Archived 2012-06-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Hurriyet Daily News, 29 August 1998, Korkmaz Yigit Group buys Yeni Yuzyil and Ates newspapers
- 1 2 TBB, Historical Data about Closed Banks - tbb.org.tr Archived 2014-12-05 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Turkish Daily News, 3 December 1997, This time, Cavit Caglar buys Etibank
- ↑ Haberturk, 17 April 2011, Dinç Bilgin gets 4 years and 10 months behind bars for embezzlement!