Thodex Founder, Fatih Arrested After Fleeing With More Than 2B

Faruk Fatih Ozer is charged with fraud and founding a criminal organization. He has been on the run for more than a year
The scam is believed to be the biggest in Turkish history, with between 400,000 and 700,000 victims robbed of ₺2.7B

Turkey issued an international arrest warrant in April last year for fugitive businessman Faruk Fatih Ozer, who fled with a reported ₺2.7 billion in investors’ assets. Although the actual figure turns out to be much less, it’s still enough for skeptics and regulators to take note of. Thodex the Turkish cryptocurrency exchange company was launched in 2017.

Albanian police caught the Thodex founder Faruk Fatih Ozer a few days after he was spotted leaving Istanbul Airport, he was previously hiding in a hotel in Tirana. The 28-year-old fraudster is apparently single after his girlfriend dumped him after shutting down the website and went on the run. She would have been judged as an accomplice to the criminal. She claimed that he was jealous and possessive and had to rebuff him severely after the breakup.

Fatih was found living in a rental property and was on holiday with two Albanian citizens in Palasa at the time of his arrest. Laptops, bank cards, mobiles, and passports were seized at the time of the arrest.

Thodex was running aggressive campaigns to lure investors. During the campaign, Thodex was distributing flashy cars while featuring notable Turkish models.

Since April 14, the exchange had been selling DOGE at a stable rate of $ 0.11. However, on April 16 the value of DOGE on other exchanges reached $ 0.42, resulting in many asking what was going on. Thousands were left in distress as they were not able to access their digital assets on the fake trading platform.

CryptoNews! 🚨

The founder of Thodex (Faruk Fatih Özer), one of Turkey's🇹🇷 largest #crypto exchanges that turned out to be an exit scam, has been arrested in Albania🇦🇱!
He fled with a reported $2 billion in investors' assets last year. #cryptocurrency #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/G7Mqf8rTsf

— Cartel's Crypto Lounge (@CartelsLounge) August 30, 2022

On April 17 Thodex halted all its transactions after conveying a mysterious message. Thodex displayed a “Temporarily Suspended” notification on its website sending over 500,000 investors into a panic.

Following the arrest of 68 other suspects, a Turkish prosecutor has proceeded with charges against 21 of them for crypto scams. They are seeking up to 40,564 years in prison for each suspect, including the wanted founder.

Where did Bitcoins from Thodex go?

After research done by BeInCrypto a cryptocurrency news platform, one wallet KEY holder was found. According to the wallet holder, Thodex has received at least 643 bitcoins since the beginning of the year. This is roughly $30.5 million at a weighted average rate. Earlier, on September 13, 2020, the exchange received more than 4,500 Bitcoins* (approximately $160 million).

It is likely that the exchange holds other additional accounts that haven’t been identified yet hence the numbers above are expected to rise. Seems like the exchange had been planning its exit since its launch. The exchange has been slowly reducing the number of transactions made. A huge amount of the remaining Bitcoin was laundered through Bitcoin mixers