Faruk Fatih Ozer, the founder of Thodex, a Turkish cryptocurrency exchange, was sentenced to 11,196 years in prison for his role in a massive fraud case. Ozer fled to Albania in 2021 with investor assets after his Thodex exchange suddenly collapsed. He was extradited back to Turkey and found guilty of money laundering, fraud, and organized crime.
On April 20, 2021, Ozer left Turkey with a flash drive rumored to contain $2 billion in crypto. After his plane reached Tirana, Albania, he checked into a hotel. A few days later, he found out that customers couldn’t access their money on the Thodex exchange, and people were accusing him of absconding with their funds.
Ozer posted a public letter to his company’s website and his social accounts, denying the accusations. He claimed that Thodex was investigating a suspected cyberattack that caused an abnormal fluctuation in the company account. He promised to return to Turkey within a few days and cooperate with judicial authorities to prevent users from suffering.
However, the day after Ozer posted the letter, police squads across Istanbul arrested 62 people, including Thodex employees at all levels of the company—and Ozer’s older brother and sister. The Turkish court found Ozer and his two siblings guilty of multiple charges, including leading a criminal organization, aggravated fraud, and money laundering. The defendants were sentenced separately for multiple crimes against 2,027 victims, leading to the total number of years in the judgment.
read more > www.wired.com