Thodex CEO to Be Imprisoned for 11,196 Years

Turkey’s well-known crypto exchange’s CEO is sentenced to be imprisoned for 11,196 years for several crimes related to the crypto industry. Thodex was considered to be Turkey’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in the past which went offline back in April 2021. Faruk Fatih Özer, the founder and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the crypto exchange went missing since then and left millions of users in the dark.

Key Facts of the Case

Faruk Fatih Özer, the founder and CEO of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange was arrested and sentenced to be imprisoned for a lifetime.  Local media disclosed that Özer along with his brother Güven Özer and his sister Serap Özer were sentenced to imprisonment for 11,196 years, 10 months, 10 months and 15 days.

They were charged for deceiving millions of customers, rolling out billions of digital assets and for purposefully development of exchange for fraud. Along with imprisonment, they were also charged with a penalty fine of 135 million liras worth five million dollars.

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Thodex was once considered to be the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Turkey which mysteriously went offline back in April 2021. And the CEO of the exchange went missing along with the prominent figures of the exchange. They deceived roughly 4 million members and took their crypto assets worth $2 billion. Özer left the country immediately and fled to another country Albania but he was eventually tracked and caught in August 2022 via Interpol.

Judicial Proceedings

After being caught from Albania, Özer was brought back to Turkey via Interpol. Police detained Özer for seven criminal charges and put him to face the court and penalty. Upon hearing the case, Özer with his brother, sister and four senior employees were arrested. Moreover, 83 people were detained for investigation upon which 21 had to face the overall imprisonment of 40,564 years.

He was charged with fraud with corporate managers and company executives, laundering of digital assets, information manipulation, developing such exchange for committing a crime, being a member of the collapsed exchange and violating the state’s laws.