Faruk Fatih Özer, the founder of the Turkish crypto currency exchange service Thodex, has been arrested in Albania. Özer fled the country last year with $2 billion worth of Crypto and will face over 40,564 years in jail.
Founder of crypto exchange company Thodex arrested in Albania after fleeing the country with $2 billion, faces over 40,000 years in prison
With several scams in the cryptocurrency circles over the last year, with $7.7 billion in value, most reported cases only equaled millions of dollars stolen from the public. However, Faruk Fatih Özer is possibly the most infamous cryptocurrency scammer. He was last seen in April 2021 when he left the country with around $2 billion crypto stolen from approximately 400,000 Thodex clients. The founder of Thodex was arrested in Albania after over a year of fleeing from authorities. Interpol issued the appropriate order to capture Özer, and the local authorities discovered the CEO in Vlorë, Albania. Özer’s identity was verified utilizing biometric results. The CEO of Crypto Exchange, Thodex, is being deported back to Albania to stand trial. Before his arrest, other Thodex employees (21 total) had been detained when the founder went missing. Now, Özer and other executives and founding members of Thodex are each looking at a prison sentence of 40,564 years. In 2017, Thodex had 700,000 clients from Turkey, where users could use cryptocurrency to protect investments since the Lira, Turkey’s national currency, had declined over many years. Starting in 2021, the Turkish government imposed strict regulations on cryptocurrency due to the country’s significant influx of digital currency exchange. In May of this year, six previously detained defendants, Guven Ozer and Serap Ozer were brought to court for the Anatolian 9th High Criminal Court hearing. Attorneys were present at the court hearing with defendants that were not detained at the time. After proceedings began, the indictment totaled 268 pages, with Özer and his siblings Guven and Serap Özer being charged with fraud. The number of complaints at the time was around 2027. The indictment includes that $356 million in Turkish Lira was posed as the number of damages caused by crimes committed by Özer and other Thodex executives and employees. News Sources: Tom’s Hardware, City A.M.
