The court in Istanbul sentenced Faruk Fatih Ozer and his two siblings to equally long jail terms, finding them guilty of aggravated fraud, leading a criminal organization and money laundering. Additionally, they have been slapped with a judicial fine of approximately $5 million.
Ozer, a high-school dropout who founded Thodex in 2017 and fled to Albania after Thodex went bust, was bullish at the hearing.
He said: “I am smart enough to lead any institution on Earth. 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.”
A study by Chainalysis put the value of cryptocurrency lost at Thodex at $2.6 billion. During the subsequent trial, 21 defendants were facing potential sentences totaling up to 40,564 years in prison.
The Anatolian 9th Heavy Penal Court delivered its verdict on Thursday, acquitting 16 of the 21 defendants and releasing four of the seven individuals who had been detained due to insufficient evidence. The remaining defendants received varying prison sentences for their involvement in various criminal activities.
