The Supreme Court of Frankfurt handed down a prison sentence of five years and 10 months for Mehmet Gurhan, the 45-year-old former director of the charity, and two years and nine months for Mehmet Taskan, 44.

The court ruled for the release of another suspect, Firdevsi Ermis, 40, with a suspended sentence of one year and ten months.

The three, of Turkish-origin, were found guilty of fraud for directing 14.5 million euros ($20.6 million) of funds raised by the Islamist-leaning Deniz Feneri (Lighthouse) charity among Germany´s large Turkish minority towards non-charitable ends.

The so-called Deniz Feneri charity fraud case was the biggest charity corruption case in Germany’s history, the Judge Jochen Mueller said Wednesday when he announced the ruling.

The German judge passed the ball to the Turkish authorities.

Mueller said Gurhan was mainly directed from Turkey, adding he had business affairs with some people from Turkey, including the head of the Turkish media watchdog, RTUK, Zahid Akman.

Zekeriya Karaman, one of Deniz Feneri Turkey´s founders and executive board chairman of Islamist Kanal 7 TV channel, has a leading role in the fraud, he added.

Turkey is ready to cooperate with the German authorities regarding the issue in the case that such a demand comes from Germany, Turkish Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin told reporters on Wednesday.

A legal case was opened in Germany against the religious charity, Deniz Feneri, over claims of illegal financial transactions involving donated funds and fraud.

The fraud scandal widened to media groups close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and some Turkish bureaucrats. Even a suspect in the case claimed that funds from the charity were paid to Erdogan, a claim later ruled out by the court.