CEO of Collapsed Turkish Crypto Exchange Gets 11,196 Years in Prison

A court in Turkey has sentenced Faruk Fatih Özer, the Founder of the collapsed Turkish crypto exchange, Thodex, his sister, Serap Özer, and his brother, Güven Özer to 11,196 years, 10 months and 15 days in prison, according to Coindesk. Further, they are facing a judicial penalty of 135 million liras (about $5 million).

Thodex's CEO Goes to Jail

It was part of an extensive trial of 21 defendants facing up to 40,564 years in prison. On Thursday, the Anatolian 9th Heavy Penal Court acquitted 16 defendants and released another four due to a lack of evidence. The rest of the defendants faced varying sentencing for the charges set against them.

Thodex was the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Turkey until the exchange suddenly went offline in April 2021. Özer immediately went missing, but the authorities arrested his brother, sister, and four other senior employees and detailed at least 83 other people.

The exchange had around 400,000 clients when it shuttered, out of which 390,000 were actively trading cryptocurrencies. Before going offline, the exchange was handling crypto trading volumes of more than $585 million, according to CoinMarketCap.com data. It was estimated to be holding cryptocurrency deposits of about $2 billion.

Serious Charges against Thodex CEO

Özer was later arrested in Albania in August 2022 after an Interpol red notice was issued against him. He was extradited to Turkey last April over seven charges, including creating and running a criminal organization, being part of a criminal organization, cheating by using information systems as a tool of banks or credit institutions, deceiving merchants or company executives and cooperative managers, and hiding the value of assets that come from crime.

He was further sentenced to seven months and 15 days in prison in July for failing to submit certain documents demanded by the Turkish Tax Inspection Board, Finance Magnates earlier reported.