The Turkish prosecutor’s office, as part of the investigation into the alleged exit scam of the Thodex bitcoin exchange, issued arrest warrants for 78 people connected with the platform. 62 of them have already been detained, according to The Associated Press.
On April 22, Thodex suspended trading for several days, allegedly due to the company being handed to a “new partner.” According to media reports, this move affected more than 390,000 Thodex users.
The company denied the accusations of an exit scam, and the exchange’s head Faruk Fatih Özer said he had no plans to disappear and described reports of money disappearing as not reflecting reality.
8) I would also like to inform you about the next steps. I have never planned to seize people’s assets and run away, and therefore there is no shortage in the TRY-denominated portions of your balances on Thodex.
— Faruk Fatih Özer (@farukfatihozer_) April 22, 2021
According to Reuters, citing Istanbul police, on April 20 Özer flew to Albania. The country’s justice ministry has issued a warrant for the Thodex founder and requested his extradition.
According to Anadolu, the Commission for the Investigation of Financial Crimes blocked all Thodex bank accounts in the country.
Back in April 2021, the Turkish central bank announced a ban on cryptocurrency payments for goods and services.