Former CEO Faruk Fatih Özer of the bankrupt Turkish crypto alternate Thodex has been given a record-breaking jail sentence for stealing $2 billion in buyer funds.
Crypto CEO Sentenced To 11,196 Years Jail Sentence
On Thursday, September 7, 2023, the previous CEO of Thodex, which was one of many largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Turkey, was reportedly sentenced to 11,196 years, 10 months, and 15 days in jail for a number of prison fees together with fraud, main a prison group, and cash laundering by the Anatolian ninth Heavy Penal Court docket.
The previous CEO reportedly defrauded over 400,000 Turkish clients of greater than $2 billion in deposits when the alternate went offline in April 2021, and Özer fled the nation instantly after the alternate went offline.
The prosecutors had initially requested a 40,562-year jail sentence for the previous crypto alternate CEO. Nonetheless, the ultimate verdict noticed the sentence diminished to 11,196 years, the longest sentence to this point for a crypto crime. Moreover, a judicial superb of 135 million Liras was additionally imposed on the previous CEO, in keeping with native media.
Faruk Fatih Özer was not the one one concerned within the alleged crime. Following the investigation, 83 individuals had been arrested and detained, and 4 different senior staff had been jailed.
When the case was completely investigated, Özer‘s sister Serap Özer, and brother Guven Özer, had been additionally discovered responsible of the identical fees and got the identical jail sentence respectively.
Though these jail phrases could seem outrageous and unfamiliar to many, they’re quite common in Turkey as a result of nation’s dying sentence eradication since 2004. In 2022, TV cult preacher Adnan Oktar was convicted of fraud and sexual assault and was sentenced to eight,658 years in jail together with 10 of his followers.
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Former Thodex Boss Denies Felony Claims
The 29-year-old former crypto boss was arrested in Albania in August 2022 the place he was serving jail phrases after fleeing Turkey in April 2021 when his crypto alternate first collapsed.
Earlier than his arrest, Özer denied claims in opposition to him fleeing the nation deliberately when the Thodex alternate went darkish. His response to the allegations was that he was in a foreign country due to enterprise conferences.
Özer was arrested after Interpol issued a crimson discover in opposition to him, and was extradited again to Turkey in April 2023 to face the costs in opposition to him. He was then detained by the police upon arrival and held on seven fees.
A few of the fees included establishing and managing a corporation with the aim of committing a criminal offense, fraud through the use of info techniques as a software of banks or credit score establishments, being a member of a corporation, fraud of retailers or firm executives and cooperative managers, and laundering the worth of property ensuing from crime, amongst others.
The courtroom believed that Özer had fraudulent intentions proper from the start and that the crypto alternate Thodex was a prison group from the beginning.
Nonetheless, Özer denied these claims in opposition to him and stated Thodex was only a crypto firm that went bankrupt in 2021 and had no fraudulent intention. He additionally advised the courtroom that he was very sensible and he wouldn’t have acted so amateurish if he was seeking to be a prison.
Featured picture from CNBC, chart from Tradingview.com