Former head of Thodex cryptocurrency exchange extradited to Turkey

Albanian authorities handed over to Turkish law enforcement the founder and former CEO of the Thodex cryptocurrency exchange, Faruk Fatih Özer. reports Anadolu Agency.

He has already been brought to Istanbul, where he was taken into custody. Earlier, the local prosecutor’s office charged the former head of the platform and 20 other defendants with forming a criminal organization, fraud and money laundering. For them sought more than 40,000 years in prison.

According to the indictment, the damage from the exchange’s activities amounted to 356 million Turkish lira (~$24 million). Chainalysis analysts valued this figure at $2.6 billion.

On 20 April 2021, Thodex suddenly halted trading. Initially the platform cited technical work, but then said it was handing the business to a “major partner”, which allegedly would take 4-5 days. Users were concerned by the closure of the company’s social media accounts.

As part of the investigation into the alleged exit scam, authorities issued arrest warrants for 78 people connected with the platform. Most of the suspects were detained.

Özer had said that he did not plan to flee. However, according to Reuters, on the day trading halted at Thodex he flew to Albania. The former CEO was detained by local authorities in August 2022.

In spring 2021, the Turkish exchange Vebitcoin halted operations, and an investigation into it began.

After these incidents, Turkey tightened the requirements for trading venues for digital assets. User verification became mandatory and the obligation to to inform the regulator about transactions exceeding 10,000 lira (~$1,150).