He founded Thodex exchange, before its collapse in 2021. In September 2023, Özer was sentenced to 11,196 years in prison for crimes including fraud.[1]
Biography
Faruk Fatih Ozer was born 1993 or 1994[2] and has two siblings, a sister, Serap, and a brother, Guven.[3][4]
He dropped out of high school[5] before founding the cryptocurrency exchange Thodex in Istanbul[6] in 2017.[2] Thodex became one of Turkey's biggest crypto exchanges[2] and Ozer became a celebrity in Turkey, photographed associating with politicians including Mevlut Cavusoglu and Suleyman Soylu.[7]
Thodex collapsed in April 2021.[2] Ozer shut down his social media profiles[8] and flew to Albania on April 20, 2021.[9] Turkish authorities launched an investigation into the company on April 22[9] before accusing it of defrauding 390,000 investors out of approximately US$2 billion.[8] Ozer rejected the fraud allegation and said his company had temporarily closed its trading platform to investigate a cyber attack.[8]
An Interpol international arrest warrant was issued for Ozer in April 2021,[6] leading to his arrest in Albania on August 30, 2022.[10][11] He was extradited to Turkey in April 2023.[12]
At an Istanbul court, on September 7, 2023,[12] Ozer was fined 135 million Turkish liras (approximately US$5 million) and sentenced to 11,196 years in prison after being found guilty of various charges including fraud.[12] His brother and sister were among the 20 other accused,[13] and were both issued with the same sentences.[13][5][3] Prosecutors state that the crimes had 2,027 victims.[2][14]
