A Turkish cryptocurrency boss and his two
siblings have been jailed for 11,196 years each for defrauding investors of
millions of dollars.
Faruk Fatih Ozer, 29, fled to Albania in 2021 with investor
assets after his Thodex exchange suddenly collapsed.
He was extradited back to Turkey in June and found guilty of money laundering, fraud, and organized crime.
Ozer told the court he would "not have
acted so amateurishly" if his intent was criminal, state media reported.
"I am smart enough to lead any institution
on Earth," the Anadolu agency quoted him as saying.
"That is evident in this company I
established at the age of 22."
The brief trial in Istanbul also found his
sister Serap and brother Guven guilty of the same charges.
Such extraordinary prison sentences have been common
in Turkey since the abolition of the death penalty in 2004 to aid efforts to
join the European Union.
Adnan Oktar, a TV cult preacher, was jailed for 8,658 years in 2022 for fraud and sex crimes. Ten of his followers
received the same sentence.
Prosecutors had asked for Ozer to be sentenced
to 40,562 years in prison, AFP reported.
Turks began using cryptocurrencies as a defense
against a deep slide in the value of the lira that began more than two years
ago.
Thodex, founded in 2017, was one of the
country's largest exchanges for virtual currencies.
Ozer gained national fame as a financial whizz
and ingratiated his way into the establishment by befriending prominent
pro-government figures.
However, the platform suddenly imploded in
April 2021. Investor assets disappeared and Ozer went into hiding.
He was arrested last year in Albania on an
international warrant from Interpol and extradited after a lengthy legal process.
Turkish media previously reported that Ozer had
fled with assets worth $2bn (£1.6bn).
The prosecutor's indictment, however, estimates
total losses to Thodex investors at 356 million liras
That amount was worth about $43m at the time of the exchange's
implosion.
The same amount is now worth about $13m because of rampant
inflation and the lira’s collapse on the international markets.
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