Infamous Turkish Crypto Boss Arrested in Albania

The Albanian authorities arrested Faruk Fatih Ozer – the CEO of the Turkish cryptocurrency trade Thodex – within the metropolis of Elbasan. Final 12 months, the platform ceased buying and selling and withdrawals, whereas the 28-year-old govt was rumored to have left Turkey with $2 billion in customers’ funds.

Regardless of not managing to detect Ozer’s whereabouts, Turkish regulation enforcement brokers jailed six different people related to the fraud. Two of these had been the brother and the sister of the CEO.

Justice at Final

Faruk Ozer and his troubled crypto trade Thodex made the headlines final 12 months. The halting of all buying and selling companies and the consecutive shutdown of the web site precipitated vital losses for hundreds of Turkish traders.

The case prompted native authorities to prepare an investigation and detain all people liable for the collapse. Over the course of their operation, they arrested 62 individuals associated to the rip-off, whereas later, they despatched six of them to jail. Curiously, two of the criminals had been Faruk Ozer’s brother and sister.

Nevertheless, the top of Thodex managed to flee the lengthy arm of the regulation. A number of stories indicated that he left his homeland with $2 billion in customers’ funds.

On August thirtieth, Ozer was arrested within the Albanian metropolis of Elbasan. Prosecutor Kreshnik Ajazi mentioned he shall be held in custody till he faces a court docket listening to within the coming days. Shortly after, the Albanian and the Turkish authorities will cooperate on his extradition.

It stays unknown what punishment Ozer will face. Nevertheless, it might be fairly extreme since he obtained an Interpol “purple discover” for his escape, whereas his fraudulent scheme ranks among the many largest-ever monetary scams in Turkey’s historical past.

Turkey and Crypto

The file inflation, the depreciating Turkish lira, and the political rigidity, amongst different points, prompted customers to allocate a few of their financial savings to cryptocurrencies, extra particularly Bitcoin (BTC) and the stablecoin Tether (USDT).

For its half, the federal government contemplated making use of extra management over the native digital asset market. Particularly, they insisted that exchanges ought to have a minimal of 100 million liras ($6.1 million) in capital to function on home soil.

The authorities are additionally in favor of imposing taxes on cryptocurrency transactions. As of the second, they haven’t disclosed when this step shall be enforced and what the tax proportion shall be.