Turkey: Disgraced Crypto Boss Sentenced To 11,196 Years In Jail

A disgraced founder of a Turkish cryptocurrency who fled to Albania, Faruk Fatih Ozer, was detained together with his two brothers. The Anadolu official news agency reported on Friday that the three had each been given a sentence of 11,196 years in prison.

According to the prosecution, Thodex CEO Faruk Fatihzer, 29, should spend 40,562 years in jail for fraud, money laundering, and founding a criminal organization.

There were five arrested suspects present at the hearing on Thursday at the Anatolian 9th High Criminal Court in Istanbul, including Ozer, as well as some of the complainants and the parties’ attorneys.

According to AA, Ozer told the court, “If I were to start a criminal organization, I would not have acted so amateurishly.”

Following a quick trial, his brothers Serap and Güven were given the same penalty, according to sources in the media.

Although the amount has since been challenged, Ozer was initially said to have left Turkey in April 2021 with $2 billion in investor assets.

When he fled Turkey in April 2021, according to the prosecution, Ozer transferred more than TL 250 million (about $30 million at the time) in user assets to three secret accounts, with the majority of the cash ending up in a Malta bank.

According to the accusation, the Zer brothers’ combined customer losses totaled TL 356 million.

The case made national headlines since it occurred at the same time as Turkey’s cryptocurrency boom, which has now largely receded as a result of stricter government regulation. Turkish citizens started using other cryptocurrencies as a form of insurance against the lira’s value drop, which started more than two years ago.

zer was taken into custody in Albania last year after Interpol issued a global arrest order.