Faruk Fatih Ozer, founder and CEO of Turkish cryptocurrency trading platform – Thodex, reportedly fled the country in 2021 with $2 billion of investor assets.
According to an announcement by Turkey’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, it was confirmed that Ozer was arrested in the city of Vlorë, his identity confirmed through biometrics. Police seized laptops, mobile devices and bank cards, the statement revealed.
“After many searches in several regions of the country, based on the information received on the operative route about the location of a person highly wanted by Turkish justice…Operation ‘Brain’ was organised and finalised,” police said in a statement.
Thodex was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Turkey with almost 400,000 members and $2 billion in cryptocurrencies. It went offline last year, leaving members without access to their funds. The company’s lawyer claimed the suspicion of fraud was unrealistic.
Turkish police detained 62 people, seized the company’s computers and froze its accounts. By that time Ozer had fled to Albania which then led to a manhunt that lasted for months.
Founder and CEO Faruk was the subject of an Interpol red notice and was eventually caught in Albania. The process to extradite him has been initiated, he is set to face a tough legal battle with local prosecutors pursuing extended jail sentences.
Accusations include establishing a criminal enterprise, fraud through informatics systems and laundering proceeds from criminal activity, according to prosecutors.
Turkish authorities went on to ban the use of crypto assets for payments and some local exchanges were investigated for fraud, exchanges including Thodex had benefitted from the rise in usage and investments of digital assets fuelled by rising inflation and value reduction of the Turkish lira.
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