Thodex CEO Gets 11,196-Year Sentence for Crypto Fraud

A Turkish court sentenced Faruk Fatih Ozer, the former CEO of the Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex, to 11,196 years in prison on charges of “establishing, managing, and being a member of an organization,” “qualified fraud,” and “laundering property values.

According to the Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu Agency, the Anatolian 9th High Criminal Court sentenced Ozer and his two siblings to the same jail term of 11,196 years, 10 months, and 15 days in addition to a $5 million punishment.

Before its precipitous collapse in 2021, the Turkish crypto exchange was one of the largest digital asset trading platforms in the country.

The exchange abruptly terminated services on the platform, and the exchange’s founder, Ozer, departed the country with $2 billion in cryptocurrency belonging to users.

“I am smart enough to manage all institutions in the world. This is evident from the company I founded at the age of 22. If I were to establish a criminal organization, I would not act so amateurishly. What is in question is it is clear that the suspects in the file have been victims for more than 2 years.”

At the time, Ozer denied any possibility of an exit scheme. In August 2022, the fugitive founder was apprehended in Albania, where he was serving a prison sentence, before being extradited to Turkey in April 2023 on allegations of fraud and money laundering.

Since July, Ozer has been incarcerated for failing to submit tax documents; his most recent conviction is for defrauding customers. In court, the proprietor of the cryptocurrency exchange asserted that he and his family were victims of injustice.

According to him, Thodex was merely an insolvent cryptocurrency company with no criminal intent.

According to a Google-translated version of Ozer’s court statement, the lengthy case against the Thodex cryptocurrency exchange involved 21 defendants, five of whom appeared in court in person.

Due to a paucity of evidence, the court acquitted 16 defendants of “qualified fraud” and ordered the release of four defendants. Following their participation in the fraud, the other defendants in the case received varying degrees of punishment.