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

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

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.

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

EtherFi, the largest liquid restaking protocol, is repositioning itself as a consumer-facing crypto neobank. Beyond staking, it is building a revenue mix around cards, vaults, and trading, aiming to capture sustainable front-end economics in DeFi. The shift highlights EtherFi’s ambition to expand from infrastructure into a full financial platform.

article-image

Legion’s reputation-based fundraising will expand through Kraken Launch, offering compliant and transparent token sales to global investors

by Blockworks /
article-image

Blockchain protocol introduces XPL token and zero-fee transfers as it targets global stablecoin adoption

by Blockworks /
article-image

With rate cuts priced in and deeper liquidity, it’s not surprising to see certain speculative assets getting a bid

article-image

Lending giant is moving to ERC‑4626 share accounting and preparing to shutter underperforming networks, with 86% of revenue on Ethereum mainnet

article-image

The payments firm introduces a USDC-based app on Stellar, aiming to modernize remittances in volatile currency markets

by Blockworks /
article-image

MarginFi fixed a flaw that could have let attackers borrow funds without repayment

by Blockworks /