(Already Covered) Founder of Turkish Crypto Exchange Thodex Confirmed to be Arrested for $2 billion Fraud

The founder of Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex, a virtual currency trading platform, has been arrested and could face up to 40,000 years in prison.

In April last year, Thodex, Turkey’s largest virtual currency trading platform, suddenly stopped all trading services and withdrawals without prior notice and issued an announcement saying that services were only suspended for 4-5 days to evaluate cooperation agreements with external investments.

According to a report published by The Associated Press, the Thodex virtual currency trading scam affected nearly 391,000 customers. The total value of the lost crypto assets is approximately $2 billion.

Thodex, a virtual currency trading platform founded in 2017, is Turkey's first licensed global cryptocurrency exchange with around 700,000 customers.

After the incident, Faruk Fatih Ozer, founder of Thodex, fled to Thailand with $2 billion worth of virtual currency and deleted all posts in social media.

The Turkish government has issued arrest warrants for a total of 83 people involved in the platform's founders and executives.

After more than a year of police arrest, Ozer was finally arrested in Frolle, the third largest city in Eastern Europe, Albania, and has been confirmed by biometric identification.

The extradition of criminal suspects to Turkey is currently underway.

In related indictment documents, prosecutors seek a maximum sentence of 40,564 years in prison, citing that they were suspected of setting up a criminal organization, committing fraud through information systems, and money laundering.