On November 8 and 9, 2017, Evrensel newspaper published two articles entitled “Albayrak and His Brother Come up in Paradise Papers As Well” and “Paradise Papers: Paradise for Them, Inferno for the People”. In these documents which came to known as Paradise Papers, the names of the then Minister of Energy and Natural Resources and current Minister of Treasury and Finance Berat Albayrak and his brother Serhat Albayrak were mentioned.
The same documents also put forward that two sons of Binali Yıldırım, the Prime Minister of the time, also had an offshore company in Malta.
Around the time when these two articles were published on Evrensel, Berat and Serhat Albayrak brothers filed a lawsuit of insult and libel against the then Managing Editor of the newspaper Çağrı Sarı. She faced up to six years in prison on the offense charged.
The final hearing on March 19, Bakırköy 2nd Penal Court of First Instance decided on the acquittal of Sarı.