Turkey: the founder of the cryptocurrency platform Thodex sentenced to 11000,<> years in prison
In Turkey, the founder of a cryptocurrency exchange has been sentenced to more than 11,000 years in prison. Ankara authorities accused Faruk Fatih Özer of fleeing with two billion dollars in assets belonging to nearly 400,000 users. The founder of Thodex was arrested in Albania in August 2022 and extradited to Turkey last April.
A CCTV capture showing Faruk Fatih Ozer trying to flee Turkey at Istanbul airport on April 22, 2021. AFP - HANDOUT
By: RFI Follow
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With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer
The sentence pronounced by the Turkish justice is exemplary: 11,196 years in prison and the equivalent of five million dollars in fine. Faruk Fatih Özer, convicted with his two brothers, was convicted of aggravated fraud, money laundering and leading a criminal organisation.
In April 2021, the 29-year-old fled Turkey a day before his cryptocurrency platform, Thodex, suspended its activities on a spurious ground. He was accused of taking with him the assets of nearly 400,000 clients, or more than $13 million in assets, according to the prosecutor. The Turkish media, for their part, evoke since the beginning of the case a much heavier damage, of the order of two billion dollars.
Thodex had made itself known for an advertising campaign promising to offer luxury cars to some of its investors. The platform had also made spectacular discounts on dogecoin, a cryptocurrency created as a joke, before being inflated thanks to the repeated interest of billionaire Elon Musk.
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