ChainCatcher reported that according to CoinDesk, the founder of the Turkish crypto exchange Thodex, Faruk Fatih Özer, his sister Serap Özer and his brother Güven Özer were sentenced to 11,196 years, 10 months and 15 days in prison. They were also fined 135 million liras (about 5 million US dollars).
Thodex was one of Turkey’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, but it suddenly went offline in April 2021, and Faruk Fatih Özer also disappeared, leaving more than 400,000 members unable to recover $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency deposits. Faruk Fatih Özer then fled to Albania, but was arrested in August 2022 on an Interpol red warrant issued against him.
As of April 2023, Özer was extradited back to Turkey and was detained by police upon arrival on seven charges, including establishing and managing an organization for criminal purposes, being a member of an organization, using an information system as a tool for fraud, fraud against a bank or credit institution, a businessman or company executive and a cooperative manager, and laundering the value of assets obtained from criminal activities. After the case came to light, Özer's brother, sister, and four other senior employees were sentenced to prison, and at least 83 people were detained during the investigation. In the final trial, 21 defendants face up to 40,564 years in prison.