How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
NYU senior Hakan Yalincak will be sentenced today in New Haven, Conn., after he pleaded guilty last summer on one count each of bank and wire fraud for taking part in a multi-million dollar finance scheme.
Yalincak faces up to six-and-a-half years in prison for his role in the fraud scheme. But based on sentencing guidelines and his cooperation, Yalincak could be given credit for the time he's already served, so it is possible he could avoid additional prison time.
"I'm hoping for the best and looking forward to finishing my studies and moving on with my life," Yalincak said in an interview with WSN. "I want to obtain my degree and go into writing or become a lawyer."
Yalincak was arrested in May 2005 for his involvement with a phony hedge fund, which included trying to swindle almost $11.4 million by defrauding investors of $8.9 million and attempting to defraud the Bank of New York of $2.5 million, prosecutors say. He was jailed for 20 months while awaiting trial at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island until his recent release on bail in January.
Since then, Yalincak has remained under house arrest in Hartford, Conn., as a condition of his bail.
Court records show that, since the investigation began, Yalincak has cooperated with authorities and, as part of a forfeiture agreement with the government, filed lawsuits to recover funds for the defrauded investors. To date, he has recouped almost $4.5 million and obtained judgments against those he says are "numerous, unindicted co-conspirators," bringing the total actual loss of investors down to $4.5 million.
Yalincak is a Turkish citizen residing within the United States under political asylum because of alleged racial discrimination against the Kurds. (Yalincak is of Kurdish descent.) Following federal prosecution, he faces the possibility of deportation.
Yalincak's mother, Ayferafet Yalincak, was also arrested and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for helping her son to defraud the investors. Ayferafet was sentenced on March 19 to two years in prison.
