Turkish court sentences founder of bankrupt crypto exchange Thodex to 11,196 years in prison

Farouk Fatih Ozer, the director of the Thodex crypto exchange that collapsed in 2021, was sentenced to 11,196 years in prison, Coindesk reports.

Ozer was accused of creating and running a fraudulent organization. On April 20, 2023, he was extradited to Turkey from Albania, where he was arrested.

Along with him, 21 other Thodex employees are involved in the case, seven of whom have been detained. The term requested by the prosecution was 40,564 years.

The case was heard in the 9th Higher Criminal Court of Anatolia. His sister Serap and older brother Güven received the same sentences as Özer. In addition, Faruk Özer was ordered to pay a fine of 135 million liras ($4.6 million).

In March 2021, Faruk Özer disappeared, and the Thodex website stopped opening. More than 400,000 crypto exchange customers have about $2 billion in their accounts, to which they have lost access.

The Thodex director himself denies the charges against him and claims that he was framed. In his last speech, he stated that the crypto exchange was not a criminal organization and simply went bankrupt.

Background. As reported, more than 500 fraudulent tokens were found in the underlying Coinbase blockchain. It is noted that due to this, the fraudsters embezzled about $2 million.