Founder of doomed Thodex exchange sentenced to over 11,000 years

Thodex, a Turkish crypto exchange, went belly up in 2021

article-image

Valery Evlakhov/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Faruk Fatih Özer, the founder of failed Turkish crypto exchange Thodex, was sentenced to 11,196 years in prison for fraud, laundering of property values and other crimes. 

Özer’s two brothers, who prosecutors claimed worked at Thodex as well, received the same ultra-lengthy prison term.

Özer founded Thodex in 2017 with 400 thousand liras in capital (nearly $15,000), according to the indictment from the prosecutor’s office. 

The exchange announced in April 2021 that it would halt transactions for its roughly 400,000 customers for four to five days. Traders never regained access to their crypto, and shortly after the shutdown, Özer fled to Albania. 

Özer was captured by authorities in Albania on Aug. 30, 2022, after his customers lost an estimated $2.6 billion due to Thodex’s collapse, per Chainalysis data.

Prosecutors put the amount lost at a much lower 356 million liras (about $13,259,000), according to state run news outlet Anadolu Agency.

Özer didn’t show remorse for the crimes he was convicted of at his sentencing hearing. Rather, he told the court that Thodex was only a company that went bankrupt.

He also said that he was “smart enough” to run any financial institution in the world, adding that he wouldn’t have acted so “amateurishly” if he actually was running a criminal organization. 


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

We believe DoubleZero, given its symbiotic relationship with validators & searchers, promise to boost overall network efficiency and throughput, lack of competition, and ability to serve many blockchain ecosystems, will command meaningful pricing power and could command a meaningful take of priority revenues across blockchains.

article-image

General Motors reported a decline in net income and withdrew its previous 2025 guidance

article-image

The president’s picks to lead the SEC and CFTC have been his most impactful crypto decisions so far, law partner says

article-image

The suit alleges RTFKT assets are securities and that Nike conducted a “scheme to mislead and deceive” with its short-lived crypto push

article-image

A new policy framework says decentralization should be judged by control — not vibes

article-image

You know about the Bitcoin Standard — what about the Bitcoin Scholarship?

article-image

Toku’s suit accuses an ex-employee of stealing confidential business information and sharing it with competitor Liquifi