Thodex Crypto Exchange CEO Faruk Fatih Özer Flees Turkey with $2 Billion in Investor Funds, 400,000 Victims
Incident Details
Summary
On April 20, 2021, Thodex — one of Turkey's largest cryptocurrency exchanges — abruptly halted trading and locked out over 400,000 users from their funds. Founder Faruk Fatih Özer fled to Albania the same day, taking an estimated $2 billion in customer assets. Turkish authorities issued warrants and arrested over 60 Thodex employees in Istanbul raids. Özer remained a fugitive for over a year before being arrested in Albania in August 2022 and extradited to Turkey in April 2023. In September 2023, an Istanbul court sentenced Özer and two siblings each to 11,196 years in prison for aggravated fraud, money laundering, and running a criminal organization. The collapse became one of Turkey's most high-profile financial crimes and triggered emergency crypto regulatory measures.
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