The sanctions-busting case in the United States involving prominent Turkish suspects is being followed daily, like a nail-biting TV series, by many at home and abroad. A bribery scandal, which Turkey had covered up in December 2013, is back in the open, this time in New York and through the confessions of Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who says he paid kickbacks to Turkish politicians and bankers while he ran an elaborate scheme to evade US sanctions on Iran.

Last week, Zarrab’s confessions appeared to also implicate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was prime minister at the time. This coincided with the main opposition Republican People’s Party exposing alleged offshore accounts of people from Erdogan’s inner circle, involving sums that are hard to explain.

Yet neither Zarrab’s testimony nor the offshore controversy seemed to unsettle the financial markets in Turkey. This was true also for the latest jump in inflation, announced as 12.98% on Dec. 4. Many now wonder why the markets have remained unmoved in the face of a string of bad news.

In early November, the Turkish lira had tumbled badly, prompting the Central Bank of Turkey to intervene to rein in the dollar, which had hit almost 4 lira. According to Central Bank data, foreign investors pulled out more than $1 billion in short-term investments from Turkey in the second week of November, but in the next two weeks, there was an inflow of $450 million, two-thirds of which went to cheapened stock shares.