Crypto Exchange Thodex Founder Denies Fraud Charges in Turkey

The founding father of failed cryptocurrency change Thodex has denied all fraud-related allegations in a Turkish courtroom. The crypto entrepreneur was handed over to Turkey by Albanian authorities earlier this yr to face prices for his main function in working the now defunct platform.

Alleged Crypto Fraudster Faruk Ozer Claims He Was Framed in Thodex Case

Faruk Fatih Ozer, founder and chief government of the Turkish crypto change Thodex, has denied defrauding traders on the buying and selling platform, native media reported. On June 12, he made his first courtroom look in his residence nation after his extradition from Albania in April.

Thodex collapsed in 2021 after attracting 400,000 customers and Ozer fled Turkey with a reported $2 billion of investor cash. He was wished on an Interpol pink discover till his arrest by Albanian regulation enforcement authorities on Aug. 30, 2022.

During the listening to on Monday, a part of a trial in opposition to 21 individuals charged in reference to the change, Ozer claimed that he was framed, rejecting all allegations of fraud in opposition to him. Seven of the opposite defendants are additionally in detention, the Hurriyet Daily News famous in a report.

“Our initial purpose was to engage in e-commerce. As I dealt with e-commerce, cryptocurrencies caught my attention,” the businessman defined. “Later, I realized I could profit from it through my social circle, so I shifted the company in that direction … My entire life became intertwined with the digital world in order to establish a cryptocurrency exchange,” he was quoted as saying.

Ozer insisted greater than as soon as that every one selections made within the firm have been his personal, stating that his sister, Serap Ozer, who was on the change’s administration staff, had no actual authority. He was additionally the one one who checked all financial institution transactions made by the change.

“It is a black mark on the legal system that my employees have been imprisoned for two years,” Faruk Ozer acknowledged within the courtroom room. According to the indictment filed by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul, they’ve been charged with establishing a felony group, committing fraud and cash laundering. Prosecutors seek a most of 40,564 years of imprisonment in whole for them for these crimes.

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