The man behind Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex has been sentenced to 11,196 years in prison after several years on the run.
A Turkish court sentenced Faruk Fatih Ozer (29 years old) and his two brothers to long prison terms on charges of money laundering, fraud and organized crime. BBC report on Friday evening.
According to Agence France-Presse, the prosecution asked to sentence Ozer to 40,562 years in prison.
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Turks have begun using the cryptocurrency as an alternative to the Turkish lira, whose value has fallen sharply over the past two years. Thodex was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Turkey until it collapsed in 2021. The Istanbul public prosecutor began investigating Thodex after many users were no longer able to access their funds.
Ozer went into hiding, but was arrested in Albania last year after he was wanted internationally through Interpol. After a lengthy legal process, he was extradited to Türkiye in June.
According to the Turkish Prosecutor General’s Office, the total losses of Thodex investors are estimated at 356 million liras. According to the prosecution, this amount was worth about $43 million when the cryptocurrency exchange collapsed. Due to rampant inflation and the collapse of the currency in Turkey, the same amount now stands at about $13 million.
According to official Turkish media, Özer is said to have stated that he “would not have acted in such an amateur manner” if he had criminal intentions.
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