Crypto Exchange Thodex Founder Sentenced To 11,196 Years In Prison

Key Points:

• Thodex founder sentenced to 11,196 years for fraud and money laundering.
• Thodex’s collapse resulted in losses estimated at $13M to $2.6B in crypto.
• Ozer fled to Albania after Thodex went bust, found guilty with siblings.

Thodex founder was sentenced to 11,196 years for fraud and money laundering. Losses valued at up to $2.6B in cryptocurrency.

Faruk Fatih Ozer, the founder of crypto exchange Thodex, has been sentenced to 11,196 years in prison by a Turkish court for crimes including fraud. Ozer, who founded Thodex in 2017, fled to Albania after Thodex went bust. He and his two siblings were found guilty of aggravated fraud, leading a criminal organization, and money laundering.

The total amount of losses investors suffered when Thodex collapsed remains unclear. The prosecutor’s indictment estimates them at 356 million liras ($13 million), but Turkish media have reported figures as high as $2 billion. A study by Chainalysis put the value of cryptocurrency lost at Thodex at $2.6 billion.

Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of now-collapsed FTX has been accused of seven different charges, including securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and money laundering. If convicted of all of them, he could face a sentence of more than a century in jail.

Bankman-Fried stepped down on Nov. 11 as CEO of FTX, replaced by court-appointed FTX CEO John Ray, who led energy trading firm Enron through bankruptcy proceedings years before.

He is set to face trial on eight criminal charges on Oct. 2, 2023. After a court hearing on Dec. 22, 2022, a federal judge decided to release Bankman-Fried from custody after his attorneys and federal prosecutors agreed to a $250 million bond, the largest ever. 

Likewise, Do Kwon reportedly faces eight felony counts of investor, securities, mail, and commodity theft. Kwon’s highest penalty in the US would be over 100 years, compared to Korea’s 40 years, due to his many crimes.

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