Thodex cryptocurrency market founder Faruk Fatih Özer has been extradited by Albanian authorities to Turkey, where he faces criminal charges. The move comes nearly two years after Thodex’s services shut down on April 21, 2021.
What is Thodex?
Thodex was Turkey’s first global cryptocurrency exchange that mediates the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies. Founded by Faruk Fatih Özer under the name Koineks in 2017, it was Turkey’s fourth cryptocurrency exchange at the time of its establishment. On April 21, 2021, all transactions of Thodex were stopped.
Background
Founded in 2017, Thodex announced on April 21, 2021 that the transactions had been stopped. There had been a problem accessing the site on April 19, and those who wanted to enter the mobile application were met with the message “The application is currently under maintenance. Please try again later”.
An announcement was made by the exchange service, saying “We are performing short-term maintenance work on Dogecoin (DOGE) transactions. Thank you for your understanding”. After this announcement, it was stated that maintenance work would be carried out on April 20. In the last statement made by the service on April 21, it was announced that the exchange market would be inaccessible for five to six business days because they were planning a partnership.
Users of the stock exchange then started to make criminal complaints against Koineks A.Ş., the owner and parent company of the Thodex exchange.
In the statement made on April 22, 2021, it was announced that there had been a “cyber attack” on the stock market. The same day, after the criminal complaints, founder Fatih Özer was investigated by the Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on the grounds that he had defrauded customers through Thodex. Losses incurred by users of the services were estimated at sıome 356 million Turkish Liras according to Özer’s indictment.
The 21 defendants included in the indictment were charged with ‘establishing and managing an organization with the aim of committing a crime’, ‘fraud by using information systems as a tool of banks or credit institutions‘ and ‘fraud of merchants or company managers and cooperative managers and laundering of property values arising from crime’.
Escape and extradition
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Fatih Özer, the founder of Thodex, fled abroad with millions of dollars worth of crypto money belonging to some 400,000 people.
Özer was caught in Albania on August 30, 2022, where a red notice had been issued for his arrest. The decision of an Albanian court to prolong Özer’s detention on September 2, 2022 was appealed by Özer’s lawyers on September 14, 2022. The decision to prolong Özer’s detention was upheld on 20 September.
The decision to extradite Özer back to Turkey was approved by an Albanian court on December 30, 2022.
Photo appears showing Özer with Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu
The recent appearance of a photo showing Özer seated with Turkey’s Minister of the Interior Süleyman Soylu has generated controversy. In a Twitter post denying such a connection, Soylu said the photo was circumstantial and had been taken during an event held by the Interior Ministry for young software developers:
“I do not know the person concerned, Faruk Fatih Özer. He came to the appointment we gave to young software developers on December 23, 2019, through a relative of ours. His name was not on the appointment list and he was only taken to the room during a photo shoot.”
Written/translated for Medyascope by Leo Kendirck
