The head of the Thodex bitcoin exchange, Faruk Fatih Ozer, and 20 other defendants in the exit scam in Turkey face a prison sentence of 40,564 years each. So much was requested by the prosecutor, writes Bloomberg.
The defendants were accused of creating a criminal organization, fraud and money laundering.
On April 22, 2021, Istanbul-based Thodex stopped trading for several days, allegedly due to the transfer of the company to a "new partner". According to media reports, this step affected more than 390 thousand Thodex users.
Shortly before that, the CEO of the platform flew to Albania. The Ministry of Justice of the country declared the founder of Thodex wanted and demanded his extradition. The Turkish Prosecutor's Office, as part of the investigation into the alleged exit scam of the bitcoin exchange Thodex, issued arrest warrants for 78 people associated with the platform. 62 of them were detained during the first days of the operation.
The indictment states that the damage from the exchange's activities amounted to 356 million Turkish lira (~$24 million). Chainalysis analysts estimated this figure at $2.6 billion.
Recall that after the incidents with the bitcoin exchanges Thodex and Vebitcoin, the country's authorities tightened the requirements for trading platforms for digital assets.
Verification of users has become mandatory, as well as the need to inform the regulator about transactions worth more than 10,000 Turkish liras (~ $1,150).
In July 2021, Turkey completed work on a draft law on the regulation of cryptocurrencies.