Faruk Fatih Özer as soon as took a {hardware} pockets holding $2 billion value of crypto via airport safety whereas fleeing arrest. This week, he’s getting into jail to start out a 11,196-year jail sentence.
Özer based Thodex, Turkey’s once-largest crypto alternate, and used it — with assist from his household — to steal untold sums from his prospects.
His brother and sister obtained the identical, 11,196-year sentence. That’s, the decide famous, extra years than 50 people might bodily serve and the longest sentence ever handed down by a Turkish courtroom.
Learn extra: Thodex chief denies fraud, says crypto alternate was hacked
Throughout his closing days of freedom, Özer had grown his beard out to his chest and was taxiing to southern Albania with a tent, desiring to camp alongside the shoreline. Legislation enforcement ultimately discovered him at a social gathering.
By then, he had no {hardware} pockets containing $2 billion, claiming he’d emptied it, used the funds to pay again victims, and thrown it into the Ionian Sea.
The Istanbul Superior Court docket didn’t even touch upon that extraordinary declare when handing him and his siblings a mixed 43,000-year sentence.
It took 62 arrests and coordinated legislation enforcement throughout a half dozen nations to lastly discover Özer. All through all of this and even at his closing sentencing, Özer denied allegations of fraud and claimed that a third-party hacker stole funds from his alternate.
Faruk Özer is now in jail till his 11,196 yr and 10 month sentence expires within the yr 13,221.
Obtained a tip? Ship us an e-mail or ProtonMail. For extra knowledgeable information, observe us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google Information, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.
