Prosecutor seeks more than 40,564 years in prison for Thodex CEO and 20 others over exit scam

The head of the Thodex bitcoin exchange, Faruk Fatih Özer, and 20 other defendants in the exit scam case in Turkey face prison terms of 40,564 years each. The prosecutor sought this sentence, Bloomberg reports.

The defendants were charged with forming a criminal organization, fraud and money laundering.

On 22 April 2021, Istanbul-based Thodex halted trading for several days, allegedly due to the transfer of the company to a ‘new partner’. According to media reports, this move affected more than 390,000 Thodex users.

Shortly before that, the platform’s CEO flew to Albania. The country’s justice ministry issued a warrant for the founder of Thodex and demanded his extradition. Turkish prosecutors, in the context of the investigation into the alleged Thodex exit scam, issued arrest warrants for 78 people connected with the platform. 62 of them were detained in the first days of the operation.

The indictment states that the damage from the exchange’s operations amounted to 356 million Turkish lira (~$24 million). Chainalysis analysts valued this figure at $2.6 billion.

As reported, after incidents involving the Thodex and Vebitcoin exchanges, authorities tightened requirements for trading venues for digital assets.

Mandatory was user verification, and there is also a need to inform the regulator about transactions above 10,000 Turkish lira (~$1,150).

In July 2021, Turkey completed work on a bill regulating cryptocurrencies.

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