Faruk Fatih Özer used to be realized ineffective in his penal advanced cell on Nov. 1. The worn CEO of now-defunct crypto alternate Thodex used to be serving an 11,000-365 days sentence for running one of many largest crypto scams in history.
His death marks the most contemporary turn in the Thodex saga, with ripple results so valuable they altered Turkish cryptocurrency regulations.
The initial details of Özer’s death conceal suicide, but the investigation is serene ongoing. It has once extra brought Thodex wait on into the spotlight.
Right here’s a gaze wait on at Özer’s memoir, how the crypto alternate impacted Turkish law and the plan it could well truly likely have contributed to the country’s elevated crypto adoption.
$2-billion Thodex rip-off sees raids, arrest and CEO out on the lam
On April 21, 2021, Thodex cryptocurrency alternate shut down trading and withdrawals. The initial announcement read that this could well likely proceed for four to 5 days. As Cointelegraph Turkey reported at the time, the alternate claimed that this used to be to enhance its operations with the wait on of “world-renowned banks and funding companies.”
Nonetheless local media reported that Özer had fled to Thailand with over $2 billion in funds as share of an exit rip-off. There have been also reports that police had raided the alternate’s areas of work in Istanbul.
Istanbul’s chief prosecutor’s workplace corroborated the reports the following day. It launched a probe into Thodex and acknowledged police had arrested 62 folks allegedly fervent in the rip-off. Özer denied the accusations, claiming his day out in a foreign places country used to be to fulfill foreign places investors.
As of April 30, 2021, a Turkish court docket made up our minds to jail six suspects, including household of the missing CEO and senior company workers, pending trial. Interpol also issued a crimson ogle for Özer.
“When he’s caught with the crimson ogle, we have extradition agreements with an spectacular share of those nations. God appealing he’ll be caught and he’ll be returned,” acknowledged Inner Minister Süleyman Soylu.
Özer managed to evade capture for over a 365 days. Albanian authorities in the end detained him on Aug. 30, 2022. He tried to allure extradition in court docket, but the decision used to be upheld, and Özer used to be in Turkish custody by April 30, 2023, two years after the scandal started.
The case against Özer used to be swift. In July 2023, apt three months after arriving in Turkey, he used to be sentenced to seven months and 15 days in penal advanced for failing to submit particular paperwork requested by the Tax Inspection Board throughout the trial.
On Sept. 8, 2023, the Anatolian ninth Excessive Criminal Court docket sentenced Özer, alongside with two of his siblings, to 11,196 years, 10 months and 15 days in penal advanced, alongside with a $5-million elegant.
In court docket, Özer claimed that he and his household have been facing deceptive accusations. He acknowledged, “I’m clear sufficient to put collectively all establishments on this planet. Right here’s evident from the company I founded at the age of twenty-two. If I’ve been to set a criminal organization, I’d not act so amateurishly. … It is obvious that the suspects in the file have been victims for better than 2 years.”
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Özer used to be serving his sentence at the Tekirdağ No. 1 F-Form Excessive Security Closed Penal Institution when he died. F-Form prisons are excessive-safety establishments reserved for political prisoners, people of organized crime syndicates and other armed teams serving an aggravated lifestyles sentence.
Human rights advocates have time and again raised concerns in regards to the stipulations at F-Form prisons. In 2007, Amnesty World renowned “harsh and arbitrary” disciplinary therapies, as wisely as isolation.
Turkey adjustments its regulations to guard investors
The Thomex scandal and its ensuing fallout have been so valuable that they drove the Turkish government to alternate its policies toward cryptocurrencies.
Straight following news of Özer fleeing the country, the Central Monetary institution of the Republic of Turkey banned crypto funds and prohibited price suppliers from offering fiat on-ramps for crypto exchanges. The legit ogle outlawed “any reveal or oblique utilization of crypto property in price services and electronic cash issuance.” Significantly, the ban excluded banks, which manner that users can serene deposit lira onto crypto alternate accounts utilizing financial institution transfers.
The ban aimed to make certain that financial stability, whereas other agencies like the Capital Markets Board (CMB) and the Monetary Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) moved to legitimize trading activities. In Could 2021, MASAK amended cash laundering and terrorism financing regulations to incorporate provisions for cryptocurrency.
By 2024, the “Legislation on Amendments to the Capital Markets Legislation” came into execute. This constructed on the initial adjustments in 2021, which incorporated in depth consumer safety measures to boot to provisions on licensing and reporting.
These new measures, which also aimed to shuffle Turkey off the Monetary Action Job Power’s “gray checklist” of nations with inadequate Anti-Money Laundering measures, have in turn helped spur the local crypto alternate.
Chainalysis’ “2025 Geography of Crypto Epic” realized that Turkey led the Middle East and North Africa in price bought in crypto. Shopping and selling activity also spiked closing 365 days.
Within the long streak, the Thodex scandal could likely have led to elevated crypto adoption in the country, but most productive after it rocked the Turkish crypto alternate and left many investors out to dry. It also resulted in the imprisonment and death of its orchestrator and CEO.
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