A Turkish cryptocurrency executive, along with his two siblings, has been sentenced to 11,196 years in prison each for defrauding investors of millions of dollars. Faruk Fatih Ozer, 29, had fled to Albania in 2021 with investor assets after his Thodex cryptocurrency exchange suddenly collapsed.
He was later extradited back to Turkey in June and subsequently found guilty of charges including money laundering, fraud, and organized crime.
During the trial in Istanbul, Ozer argued that his actions were not criminal, stating that he wouldn’t have acted in such an amateurish manner if his intent had been criminal.
Boss and siblings sentenced to thousands of years in prison
He expressed confidence in his abilities, saying, “I am smart enough to lead any institution on Earth.” Ozer’s sister Serap and brother Guven were also found guilty of the same charges.
The extraordinary prison sentences handed down in this case are not uncommon in Turkey since the death penalty was abolished in 2004.
For context, a TV cult preacher named Adnan Oktar received a 8,658-year prison sentence in 2022 for fraud and sex crimes, with ten of his followers also receiving the same sentence.
Thodex, founded in 2017 by Ozer, became one of Turkey’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. However, it suddenly collapsed in April 2021, leading to the disappearance of investor assets and Ozer going into hiding.
He was eventually arrested in Albania on an Interpol warrant and extradited to Turkey.
While initial reports suggested Ozer had fled with $2 billion worth of assets, the prosecutor’s indictment estimated losses to Thodex investors at 356 million Turkish liras, equivalent to about $43 million at the time of the exchange’s collapse, but significantly less due to subsequent currency devaluation and inflation.
