Faruk Fatih Ozer, the mastermind behind collapsed Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex, has been handed a staggering 11,196-year prison sentence for a series of crimes including fraud, money laundering, and leading a criminal organization. Ozer’s crypto exchange resulted in losses as high as $2.6 billion for investors.
Bloomberg reports that in a landmark ruling that has sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency community, a Turkish court in Istanbul sentenced Faruk Fatih Ozer and his two siblings to jail terms exceeding 11,000 years each. The charges include aggravated fraud, leading a criminal organization, and money laundering.
Ozer, a high-school dropout who founded crypto exchange Thodex in 2017, appeared unrepentant during his final court hearing. “I am smart enough to lead any institution on Earth,” he was quoted as saying. “That is evident in this company I established at the age of 22. I wouldn’t have acted so amateurishly if this were a criminal organization.”
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (second on left) is led away in handcuffs by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force in Nassau, Bahamas, on December 13, 2022. (MARIO DUNCANSON/AFP via Getty Images)
The collapse of Thodex has left a trail of financial devastation for its investors. While the prosecutor’s indictment estimates the total losses at 356 million liras (approximately $13 million), some Turkish media outlets have reported figures as high as $2 billion. A study by Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm, put the value of cryptocurrency lost at Thodex at a staggering $2.6 billion.
Ozer had initially fled to Albania after the collapse of Thodex but was extradited to Turkey earlier this year following a lengthy legal process. His extradition and subsequent trial have been closely watched as a test case for how countries handle cryptocurrency-related crimes.
In another high profile crypto case, disgraced FTX founder and Democrat mega donor Sam Bankman-Fried has recently pleaded not guilty to the largest charges of fraud and money laundering related to the collapse of his crypto empire.
As Breitbart News previously reported:
Disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to fraud and money laundering charges. His lawyers decried his conditions in jail, including a lack of vegan meals, stating, “because he’s following his principles, [Bankman-Fried] is only now subsisting on a diet of bread and water.”
Read more at Bloomberg here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan