Faruk Fatih Özer, the founder of the defunct Turkish exchange Thodex, has been sentenced to 11,196 years in prison, along with his siblings.
Faruk Fatih Özer, the founder of the now-defunct Turkish exchange Thodex, along with his two siblings, has been sentenced to 11,196 years in prison, as reported by local sources. Additionally, they have been fined 135 million Liras.
Established in 2017, Thodex was among Turkey’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges before it collapsed in April 2021. When Özer fled, more than 400,000 users were unable to access over $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency deposits. After eluding authorities in Albania last year, Özer was apprehended in August following an Interpol red notice investigation.
In April of this year, Özer was extradited to Turkey and faced seven charges, including establishing an organization with the intent to commit a crime, utilizing information systems, banks, or credit institutions for fraudulent purposes, and laundering assets acquired from fraudulent activities involving merchants, company managers, and cooperative managers.
Özer’s brother, sister, and four other top executives were subsequently imprisoned, while an additional 83 individuals were detained as part of the investigation. The trial concluded with 21 defendants receiving a combined sentence of 40,564 years in prison.
Prosecutors alleged that Özer had transferred 250 million liras in user assets to three undisclosed accounts when he fled Turkey in April 2021, with a significant portion of these funds ultimately finding their way into a Maltese bank.
On the recent development, the Anatolian 9th Heavy Penal Court acquitted 16 out of the 21 defendants and released four of the seven individuals previously incarcerated due to insufficient evidence. Other defendants received sentences commensurate with their respective crimes.
According to the state news agency Anadolu, Özer defended himself in court, stating, “I possess the intellect to lead any organization worldwide. If I were to establish a criminal organization, I would not have acted so amateurishly.”
Turkey has seen significant crypto adoption, particularly as the country grapples with high inflation, as indicated by a recent KuCoin survey. Adoption has increased from 40 to 52 percent of the Turkish population in the past year and a half.
It’s noteworthy that Turkey has a history of imposing substantial prison sentences, a practice that became more common after the country abolished the death penalty in 2004 as part of its efforts to join the European Union.
