as Transport Minister. It was further alleged that the firm was being funded by the state despite being a private company. In response to the scandal, Yıldırım issued a statement claiming that he had no interest or involvement in the matter and that the institution responsible was the Privatisation Administration, not the Ministry of Transport. Yıldırım has been identified by several investigative journalists to be the owner of 17 companies, 28 ships and 2 super-yachts, though the exact number of ships registered under his name remains unknown. Yıldırım's son and daughter established their shipping company in 2002, purchasing their first ship in 2003 for $445,000 to operate the İzmir Çeşme-Brindisi (Italy) route. In response to criticism over how the money was acquired, Yıldırım claimed that he had partially paid for the ship himself and caused further controversy when he claimed that '$445,000 is not a lot of money'. On 7 January 2014 following a police raid on the Port Administration in İzmir, Yıldırım's brother-in-law was arrested for conspiring to rig bids on tender, defalcation, giving and taking bribes, serious fraud and sharing confidential information regarding tenders with others. He was also filmed and caught on camera while taking bribes. On 12 April 2016, Yıldırım's son was photographed by a Sözcü newspaper journalist playing roulette at the Marina Bay Sands Casino in Singapore. The photographs were leaked online, causing criticism due to Yıldırım's previous comments regarding religious morality and Islam, which conflicted with his son's gambling. It was alleged that the photographs were leaked by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in an attempt to halt a challenge by Yıldırım for the party leadership. Soon after, photographs of Yıldırım's nephew, whom he had appointed to the İstanbul Regional Directorate of Transport, were leaked showing him drinking rakı, a traditional Turkish alcoholic beverage that also conflicted with the Islam-orientated social policy espoused by the AKP. Veil controversy In 2006, Yıldırım was subject to criticism by secularists in Turkey over allegations that he preferred veiled women or men with veiled wives when appointing bureaucrats to positions within the Ministry of Transport. The criticism spread to the AKP government as a whole and to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after Durmuş Yılmaz, whose wife wore a headscarf, was appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Turkey. In response to the criticism, Yıldırım denied the claims of discrimination and stated that it was against the party's program,