Fugitive Thodex Founder Arrested; Confirms Albanian Cops

Fugitive Turkish Thodex founder Faruk Fatih Ozer (28), who was on the run since last year, was arrested in Albania. The news was confirmed by the Turkish Interior Ministry on Tuesday (30 August).

Faruk Fatih Ozer fled Turkey with a reported $2B of investors’ funds with him. Later, Turkey issued an international arrest warrant for him in April last year. The Thodex crypto scam is viewed as one of the biggest crypto scams in history.

The Thodex founder who was also served with a red notice by Interpol got arrested in Vlora. As per the Ministry, the “extradition procedures to Turkey have been initiated.”

As per media sources, Elbasan prosecutor Kreshnik Ajazi has said that Ozer will face a court hearing in the coming days, at which the “security measure” of 40 days in custody will be decided upon, and following that the extradition process to Turkey will start.

Many were suspicious of Thodex even before suspended trading

It is believed that Thodex ran aggressive campaigns to attract investors. Initially, it promised to distribute luxury cars via a flashy advertising campaign featuring notable Turkish models.

But the Thodex exchange halted trading in April after conveying a mysterious message days earlier stating it required five days to deal with an unidentified outside investment. The last time an outgoing transaction was made on Thodex was on April 17, 2021.

Hundreds of thousands of Thodex users were left in a distressed situation last year after they were not able to access their digital assets on the trading platform following the suspension of its services last year. Some say that the Turkish investors who actively used the platform were suspicious of the company even before it announced the suspension of its services on April 21 last year. This is because, 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.

Over 60 suspects arrested so far in connection with the ‘scam’:

Faruk Fatih Ozer is charged with fraud and founding a criminal organization. Since last year, more than 60 suspects have been arrested in the country for their links with the company. The investing agencies also seized a large number of digital materials and documents during operations.