Faruk Fatih Özer, a cryptocurrency exchange founder based on Turkeywas caught by Turkish authorities and could face more than 40,000 years in prison, Digital Trends reports.
According to reports, Faruk Fatih Özer founded a Turk electronic money exchange called Thodex in 2017 and was on the run by authorities for more than a year after fleeing with $2 billion. The actual sentence could be “as high as 40,564 years.”
Thodex reported 700,000 users at its peak. According to the report, there are a lot of people in Turkey investing in crypto exchanges due to the continued decline of the country’s local currency over the years. This may have helped Thodex. But a few years after his birth, Thodex ran into trouble.
“In April 2021, Thodex abruptly halted all trading, claiming that an outside investment forced it to halt operations for up to 5 days. Özer then stated that the company had to stop trading altogether, citing cyberattacks. Despite the promise that customer funds will remain safe, for around 400,000 users, that simply isn’t the case. Users lose access to their accounts and subsequently their funds. ,” the report said.
Turkish police managed to arrest many employees at the company but Faruk managed to escape and fled to Albania. He allegedly took $2 billion “from funds belonging to the company’s investors and customers.” After about a year, he was arrested in the Albanian city of Vlorë and his identity was confirmed through biometric verification. He is now awaiting trial in Turkey along with other executives from Thodex.
According to reports, Faruk Fatih Özer founded a Turk electronic money exchange called Thodex in 2017 and was on the run by authorities for more than a year after fleeing with $2 billion. The actual sentence could be “as high as 40,564 years.”
Thodex reported 700,000 users at its peak. According to the report, there are a lot of people in Turkey investing in crypto exchanges due to the continued decline of the country’s local currency over the years. This may have helped Thodex. But a few years after his birth, Thodex ran into trouble.
“In April 2021, Thodex abruptly halted all trading, claiming that an outside investment forced it to halt operations for up to 5 days. Özer then stated that the company had to stop trading altogether, citing cyberattacks. Despite the promise that customer funds will remain safe, for around 400,000 users, that simply isn’t the case. Users lose access to their accounts and subsequently their funds. ,” the report said.
Turkish police managed to arrest many employees at the company but Faruk managed to escape and fled to Albania. He allegedly took $2 billion “from funds belonging to the company’s investors and customers.” After about a year, he was arrested in the Albanian city of Vlorë and his identity was confirmed through biometric verification. He is now awaiting trial in Turkey along with other executives from Thodex.
