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Faruk Fatih Ozer, founder and former CEO of the Thodex cryptocurrency exchange, was arrested in the Albanian city of Vlore. He may now spend the rest of his life in prison.
Ozer fled Turkey after the collapse of Thodex in April 2021. Initially, it was claimed that the trading halt was due to cyberattacks, a technical break, and that investors' money remained safe. Later, the company said it would hand over the business to a “major partner” within days. However, eventually, the former CEO of Thodex decided to defect. Turkish police decided to act and arrested dozens of Thodex employees and confiscated the company's computers. It later emerged that the company had transferred bitcoins worth about $125 million to the US cryptocurrency exchange Kraken. This was considered theft of funds from the failing business.
The head of Thodex allegedly defrauded people of $2.5 billion, and so far reports have come in from 2,000,000 defrauded people. Seventy-eight people have been linked to the case, and arrest warrants have been issued against them. So far, many of them have been caught. Faruk Fatih Ozer himself being at the very top of this pyramid has long remained elusive to law enforcement. Interpol issued a red notice for him, meaning that police around the world were obligated to locate and apprehend him. Ozer initially fled Turkey for Albania, arguing that he was on a business trip. However, he did not leave empty-handed, only 20 million in assets belonging to investors.
The suspect even changed his appearance to make him harder to recognize. However, the swindler lost out to modern technology, more specifically biometrics, through which the identity of the wanted man was confirmed, as revealed by Albanian Interior Minister Bledar Chuchi. Ozer's extradition to Turkey for trial has been pending since August 30. The former head of the now-defunct Thodex exchange and his associates in the criminal enterprise face up to 40,564 years in prison. He will most likely spend the rest of his life there.
Translated and published with permission fromhttps://ithardware.pl/aktualnosci/byly_szef_tureckiej_gieldy_kryptowalut_thodex_zatrzymany_moze_spedzic_w_wiezieniu_reszte_zycia-23096.html
