Crypto scammer faces 40,000 years in jail after stealing $2 billion from customers

The founder of a Turkish cryptocurrency exchange service faces 40,564 years in jail after fleeing the country with AU$2.95 billion (US$2b) last year. 

Yes, you read that right, 40,564 years.

Bloomberg reported that Faruk Faith Ozer who founded Thodex fled Turkey in April 2021 after stealing about AU$2.95 billion (US$2b) from around 400,000 clients.

That’s a whole lot of Dogecoin.

mundissima / Alamy

He was recently found and arrested in Albania after becoming the subject of an international police investigation.

The Turkish Ministry of the Interior released a statement saying that Ozer was in the process of being extradited back to Turkey after his identity was confirmed using biometric results.

He had been on the run for over a year with some of his employees detained at the time of his dash out of the country. 

The indictment on Thodex sought the sentence of 21 defendants all of which with sentences of 40,000 plus years. 

A manhunt was on for Ozer after footage emerged of the 28-year-old at Istanbul airport, with Turkish police teams flying to four countries including Albania.

Turkey was in a state of economic decline and inflation at the peak of Thodex’s powers. 

The company was founded in 2017 and drew in legions of Turks looking to protect their savings by investing in the apparently more ‘stable’ crypto market.

Thodex abruptly paused trading in 2021 claiming that the company had to put a halt to its services due to cyberattacks.

ronstik / Alamy

Ozer then promised that customer funds would remain safe and be returned to those users who had lost access to their accounts, according to Digital Trends. 

Of course, that didn’t happen. 

There has been no official announcement or indication of what happened with all the customer’s funds or accounts, however, Decrypt reports that Thodex transferred $185 million (US$125m) in Bitcoin to exchange in the United States.

On the other hand, a lawyer representing Thodex has claimed that the money simply cannot be found.

While cryptocurrency trading platforms and coins are increasingly growing a reputation for scamming people out of their money, one Australian family found themselves on the other end of the spectrum.

Thevamanogari Manivel was on the end of perhaps the biggest surprise of her life last year when $10,474,143 showed up in her bank account.

She had been waiting on a $100 refund from Crypto.com. 

The platform only discovered its mistake nine months later and went to court to get its money back. 

As for Thodex, we hope they serve each of those 40,564 years.