In Albania, Faruk Fatih Özer, ex-head of the cryptocurrency exchange Thodex, was detained by local police.
Albanian police arrested the former CEO of Thodex Faruk Fatih Özer in the city of Vlorë. The Ministry of Interior of Turkey reported this. The extradition of the detainee to Turkey is currently under consideration.
At home, Özer could face 40,564 years in prison. This was previously stated by Bloomberg, citing the news agency Demiroren. More than 390,000 users fell victim to Thodex, losing access to their accounts and money in April 2021. The total damage is estimated at $2 billion. Turkish police have detained 62 people in the Thodex case.
However, Avalanche Business Development Director Aytunç Yıldızlı and DataPool Founder Tufan Poyraz conducted an independent investigation. They concluded that the total amount of client money stolen during the closure of Thodex was not $2 billion, but $150 million. However, they specified that “this amount is probably a little bit more because not all BTC were found.”
The Turkish crypto exchange Thodex has been operating since 2017 and was one of the largest local platforms. In April 2021, trading there suddenly stopped, and a day later, a cyberattack on the site was announced. On the same day, the Turkish police began arresting people involved in the exchange operation, but Faruk Fatih Özer flew to Albania, where he fled until recently. The situation has little impact on the popularity of cryptocurrencies in Turkey, which reached its peak in 2021.
