Company Electronic Records Are Deleted During a Shareholder Dispute in Turkey: How Can Evidence Be Preserved? 2026 Updated Guide

Company emails, accounting records, server files or digital documents are deleted during a shareholder dispute in Turkey. Learn how evidence can be preserved, recovered and secured for commercial litigation.

Shareholder disputes can quickly turn into evidence disputes when one shareholder, director or employee controls the company’s servers, accounting software, email accounts or document archives. If electronic records are deleted after a conflict begins, the other shareholder may lose access to evidence concerning company funds, related-party transactions, unauthorized payments, asset transfers, management decisions, accounting irregularities and misuse of corporate assets. In Turkey, the response should be immediate. Digital evidence can be overwritten, cloud accounts can be closed and system logs can disappear. The priority is therefore to preserve the existing digital environment before attempting an uncontrolled recovery operation.

Which Electronic Records Can Become Important?

Relevant evidence may include company emails, accounting databases, electronic invoices, bank records, ERP records, customer and supplier files, cloud storage, server logs, access records, board documents, shareholder correspondence, messaging records, payment instructions, electronic signatures and backups.

The exact evidence required depends on the allegations in the shareholder dispute.

Deleted Does Not Necessarily Mean Permanently Destroyed

Deleting a file from a computer does not always mean that every copy has disappeared. Copies may remain in backups, email servers, cloud systems, accounting platforms, other employees’ devices or system logs.

Forensic examination may also potentially identify deleted information depending on the device and subsequent use.

Act Immediately After Discovering the Deletion

Delay is one of the greatest risks. Continued use of a computer or server can overwrite recoverable data.

The company or shareholder should therefore consider immediate technical preservation measures together with legal action.

Do Not Attempt Amateur Data Recovery

Repeatedly opening devices, installing recovery software or copying files without a proper methodology can alter metadata and create later arguments about authenticity.

Where the evidence is commercially significant, professional forensic preservation should be considered.

Preserve the Original Device

If a company laptop, server, telephone or storage device may contain relevant evidence, its current condition should be documented.

Where legally permissible and appropriate, forensic imaging can preserve a technical copy for subsequent examination without repeatedly altering the original device.

Preserve Metadata

A document’s content is only part of the evidence. Metadata may help establish when a file was created, modified, accessed or deleted.

Careless copying can change some metadata. Preservation methodology therefore matters.

Server Logs Can Reveal Who Deleted Records

Access and activity logs may potentially show which user account accessed particular systems, when access occurred and what actions were performed.

These logs should be preserved quickly because retention periods may be limited.

Cloud Records Must Be Secured

Many companies no longer store all information locally. Email, accounting and business documents may exist in cloud environments.

Administrators should identify relevant accounts, retention settings, backups and audit logs without making unnecessary changes to the data.

Preserve Company Emails

Email can establish instructions, approvals, objections, payment requests and knowledge of transactions.

Relevant evidence may exist in the sender’s account, recipient accounts, mail servers, archived mailboxes and backups even if one copy was deleted.

Accounting Records Are Particularly Important

In shareholder disputes, accounting data can reveal unexplained payments, related-party transactions, loans, expenses, asset transfers and changes to company accounts.

Electronic accounting records should be compared with underlying invoices, bank movements and statutory commercial records.

Preserve Electronic Invoice Records

Electronic invoices and related commercial records can help reconstruct transactions even where internal company files have been deleted.

The investigation should identify which documents exist independently of the disputed company’s local computer systems.

Bank Records Can Reconstruct Missing Transactions

Deletion of an internal accounting entry does not erase the corresponding banking transaction.

Bank statements, transfer records and payment instructions can therefore be used to reconstruct financial activity.

Identify External Copies

Accountants, financial advisers, customers, suppliers, banks, auditors and other third parties may possess legitimate copies of records that have disappeared from company systems.

A preservation strategy should map all possible evidence sources.

Backups Should Be Secured Immediately

Determine whether daily, weekly or monthly backups exist.

Do not overwrite older backups before identifying which versions may contain the missing records.

Automatic Backup Rotation Is a Hidden Risk

Many systems automatically delete older backups after a fixed period.

If litigation is foreseeable, relevant technical personnel should be instructed through appropriate legal and corporate procedures to preserve potentially important backup sets.

Preserve Access-Control Information

Identify who possessed administrator privileges, passwords and deletion authority.

This can become important if one shareholder alleges that another shareholder or director intentionally destroyed evidence.

Record the Discovery of the Deletion

Prepare a chronology describing when the records were last available, when deletion was discovered, who had access and what immediate steps were taken.

Contemporaneous documentation can later help explain the preservation process.

Can Evidence Be Preserved Through Court Proceedings?

Depending on the circumstances, Turkish procedural law provides mechanisms that may be relevant to preserving evidence before it disappears or becomes significantly harder to obtain.

The appropriate application depends on the type of dispute, evidence and urgency.

Evidence Determination Can Be Important

Where there is a genuine risk that evidence will disappear or become difficult to present later, an application aimed at formally determining and preserving evidence may be considered.

Digital evidence cases should clearly explain why delay creates a real preservation risk.

Expert Examination May Be Requested

Technical disputes concerning servers, accounting systems, deleted files and access logs may require expert examination.

The questions presented to the expert should be specific. A broad request to “examine all company computers” may be less effective than identifying relevant systems, periods, accounts and transactions.

Interim Measures May Also Need to Be Considered

If deletion forms part of a broader attempt to conceal company assets or obstruct shareholder rights, other urgent measures may potentially be relevant depending on the underlying dispute.

Evidence preservation and asset protection should be analyzed separately.

Do Not Confuse Evidence Preservation With Unlimited Access

A shareholder’s right to information and a request to preserve evidence are related but distinct issues.

The company may also hold personal data, employee communications, trade secrets and third-party confidential information. Evidence collection should therefore be targeted and legally structured.

Shareholder Information Rights Can Become Relevant

Depending on the company’s legal form and circumstances, shareholders may possess statutory information and examination rights.

If management refuses access while records are disappearing, the chronology of requests and refusals should be preserved carefully.

Send Written Requests

Important requests for corporate documents should normally be documented rather than made only by telephone.

The shareholder should identify the categories of records requested and preserve proof of the company’s response.

Board and Management Decisions Should Be Preserved

Minutes, resolutions, circular decisions and electronic approval records may show who authorized disputed transactions.

Compare official corporate records with emails and accounting entries.

Deleted WhatsApp or Messaging Records May Also Matter

Business instructions increasingly occur through messaging applications. Relevant communications may remain on another participant’s device or backup even where one user deletes them.

Collection should nevertheless respect applicable evidentiary and privacy rules.

Screenshots Alone May Be Insufficient

Screenshots can be useful but may be challenged concerning completeness, context or authenticity.

Where the communication is important, preserve the underlying electronic source and surrounding conversation where legally appropriate.

Notarial or Other Formal Preservation May Be Considered

Depending on the evidence and circumstances, formal documentation methods may help establish the existence and condition of electronic material at a particular time.

The appropriate method should be selected according to the evidentiary purpose.

Digital Forensic Reports Can Strengthen the Case

A qualified forensic examination can potentially identify deleted files, account activity, timestamps and relationships between devices and records.

The report should explain methodology so that findings can be evaluated later.

Chain of Custody Matters

Document who obtained the device, when it was collected, how it was stored, who created forensic copies and who accessed them.

Poor evidence handling can create avoidable authenticity disputes.

Do Not Modify the Company’s Systems Without Authority

A minority shareholder should not respond to suspected deletion by secretly entering restricted company systems or using another person’s credentials.

Evidence collection itself must remain lawful.

Preserve Evidence of Unauthorized Transfers

If the dispute involves money being transferred to shareholders, directors, relatives or related companies, collect the electronic evidence together with banking and accounting records.

The objective should be to reconstruct the entire transaction rather than relying on a single deleted file.

Related-Party Transactions Should Be Mapped

Prepare a table identifying the recipient, amount, date, stated purpose, approving person, invoice and relationship with company management.

Digital evidence can then be connected with the financial evidence.

Compare Accounting Versions

If backups exist from different dates, comparison may reveal whether transactions were subsequently altered or deleted.

Changes should be examined technically rather than inferred solely from differences in printed reports.

Preserve Audit Trails

Modern accounting and ERP systems may maintain logs showing creation, amendment and deletion of entries.

These audit trails can be particularly valuable where parties dispute who altered company records.

Employee Accounts Should Not Be Deleted Prematurely

If an employee or manager leaves during the dispute, relevant business records associated with the account should be preserved in accordance with lawful corporate procedures before routine account deletion occurs.

Former Directors’ Records May Be Relevant

A director’s resignation does not necessarily make historical records irrelevant.

Preserve records relating to the period during which disputed decisions were made.

Consider Whether Deletion Violates Corporate Duties

Intentional destruction or concealment of company records may have consequences beyond the immediate evidentiary problem depending on who acted, what was deleted, why it was deleted and the resulting harm.

The conduct should be analyzed together with directors’ and managers’ statutory and contractual obligations.

Criminal Issues May Arise in Serious Cases

Depending on the facts, unauthorized access, manipulation or destruction of electronic information can potentially raise criminal-law issues.

A criminal complaint should not be used automatically as leverage in an ordinary commercial disagreement. The factual elements of any suspected offence should be assessed independently.

Civil and Commercial Claims May Continue Simultaneously

The underlying dispute may involve director liability, shareholder rights, repayment of company funds, invalid corporate resolutions, damages or other commercial remedies.

Evidence preservation should support these substantive claims rather than become an isolated objective.

Preserve Evidence Before Filing the Main Case

Where possible, identify the most vulnerable digital evidence before lengthy litigation begins.

Once servers are replaced, accounts closed and backup cycles completed, technically recoverable information may be substantially reduced.

Build an Evidence Map

A useful evidence map identifies:

the allegation; relevant transaction; likely digital source; physical or cloud location; person controlling the system; available backup; external copy; preservation status; and legal method for obtaining the evidence.

This turns a broad shareholder dispute into a manageable evidentiary investigation.

Foreign Shareholders Should Coordinate From Abroad

A foreign shareholder does not necessarily need to wait until travelling to Turkey before preservation strategy begins.

Turkish counsel can assess urgent procedural measures while company records, financial information and digital systems are identified.

Foreign Parent Companies Should Preserve Their Own Records

Where the Turkish company is part of an international group, relevant emails, contracts and accounting correspondence may also exist on the foreign parent’s systems.

Those records should not be overlooked.

Avoid Selective Preservation

Preserving only documents favorable to one shareholder can create credibility problems.

Relevant evidence should be preserved systematically, including records that may not support the shareholder’s preferred interpretation.

Immediate Evidence Preservation Strategy

When electronic company records are deleted during a shareholder dispute in Turkey, the affected party should immediately identify the missing data, preserve devices and backups, prevent routine deletion of relevant logs, document administrator access, secure emails and accounting records, identify third-party copies, consider forensic imaging, prepare a chronology, evaluate urgent evidence-preservation proceedings and connect the recovered digital material with the underlying corporate and financial claims.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can deleted company files be recovered?

Potentially. Recovery depends on the system, storage method, backups, subsequent use and technical circumstances. Immediate preservation improves the chances of retaining relevant evidence.

Should the computer continue to be used?

If it potentially contains important deleted evidence, continued use can create a risk of overwriting recoverable information. Professional technical advice should be considered promptly.

Can server logs identify who deleted files?

Potentially. Audit and access logs may show user activity, although the available information depends on the system and retention settings.

Can company emails be recovered after deletion?

Potentially. Copies may remain on servers, recipient accounts, archives or backups.

Can accounting data be reconstructed?

Often at least partly. Bank records, electronic invoices, supplier documents, backups and accounting audit trails may help reconstruct missing transactions.

Can a Turkish court preserve electronic evidence before litigation?

Depending on the circumstances and urgency, procedural mechanisms for determining and preserving evidence may be available.

Can a shareholder secretly access the company’s server to obtain evidence?

Unauthorized access can create separate legal problems. Evidence should be obtained through lawful corporate, procedural and forensic methods.

Are screenshots sufficient evidence?

They can be relevant, but preserving the underlying electronic source, context and authenticity information can significantly strengthen the evidentiary position.

Can deletion of company records create personal liability for a director?

Potentially, depending on the director’s duties, the nature of the records, purpose of deletion, resulting damage and other circumstances.

What should be done first?

Preserve the existing digital environment before attempting recovery. Secure backups, logs, devices, cloud records and external copies while documenting who had access and when the deletion was discovered.

Client-Focused Legal Support for Shareholder Disputes and Digital Evidence

Electronic-record deletion during a shareholder dispute can affect director liability, company-account investigations, related-party transfers, shareholder information rights, damages claims and the ability to prove misuse of corporate assets. Fırat Fesih Kaya Law Office assists foreign shareholders, investors and companies in Turkey with urgent evidence-preservation strategies, shareholder disputes, corporate-record investigations and commercial litigation. Lawyer Fırat Fesih Kaya provides legal assistance in coordinating digital evidence preservation, court applications, expert examinations, corporate-document requests and claims arising from concealed or deleted company records.

Phone:
+90 312 434 22 22

Mobile:
+90 532 769 22 22

Email:
info@firatfesihkaya.av.tr

Address:
Mevlana Boulevard No:221, Yıldırım Tower, Office No:148, 06520 Balgat, Çankaya, Ankara, Turkey