TL;DR Breakdown
- The Turkish prosecutor has called for a 40,000-year sentence for Thodex Rugpull’s founder.
- Faruk Fatih Özer, the founder of Thodex, is still missing and wanted by Interpol.
Last April, Thodex, a crypto business based in Turkey, announced that its platform had been “temporarily closed” to address an “abnormal fluctuation in the company accounts,” while founder and CEO Faruk Fatih Ozer escaped with over $2 billion of investors’ money to Albania.
Thodex indictments over a rug pull scam
According to Demiroren News Agency, the indictment on Thodex, an Istanbul-based firm, seeks sentences of up to 40,564 years for each defendant. The mentioned persons include the 28-year-old CEO Faruk Fatih Ozer, who has been missing for a year. After the video of Ozer at Istanbul airport surfaced in April 2021, Turkish police teams traveled to four nations, including Albania, in fruitless searches for him.
In April 2021, customers of the exchange complained that they were unable to withdraw hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency. As a result, Ozer vanished and refused to communicate with anybody. Around that time, Thodex had over 400,000 visitors, of which 390,000 were active.
It’s also uncertain what happened to the stolen cash. In October 2020, inflows to Thodex peaked at 1,700 Bitcoin. However, during that time, Thodex saw its highest daily outgoing transaction of 214 bitcoin on March 23, 2021.
The last known outgoing transaction on Thodex was made on April 17, 2021. The complaint procedure will begin with the acceptance of the indictment, in which over 356,000 people were involved as plaintiffs against the now-defunct exchange.
At the moment, Turkish authorities still have an active international arrest warrant for Ozer’s arrest. Interpol has issued a red notice for his capture. Furthermore, Ozer’s siblings are already in jail for their role in Thodex. Police have also detained over 62 people in eight cities, including Istanbul.
Investors lose over $24 million
Last seen at Istanbul’s airport in 2021, Ozer has since vanished, with authorities continuing to look for him. Soon after his disappearance, Ozer released a statement from an undisclosed location denying the allegations and stating that he would pay back investors and return to Turkey at a later time.
Thodex was a crypto venture that attracted hundreds of Turks looking to safeguard their savings from runaway inflation and an unstable currency. Each of the defendants stands accused of being a part of an organization that was formed and managed for the purpose of committing a crime. Membership in an organization, fraud by using Information systems, and laundering money due to criminal activities are among the additional counts.
The indictment alleges that the exchange’s collapse resulted in total losses of 356 million liras ($24 million), far less than the $2.6 billion claimed in a February research by Chainalysis. It said Thodex was primarily to blame for 90% of the total global loss due to rug pulls in 2021.
The Demiroren group contends that the accused individuals ran a criminal organization, committed fraud through informatics systems, and laundered money from criminal acts.
The harsh punishment sought by the Turkish prosecutor for a 40,000-year plus sentence reflects the range of suffering fraud endured by crypto investors. In an industry that is yet to be fully developed, crypto scams are becoming more apparent. When it comes to investments, investors must be more cautious.
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