I think this may be one of the the longest prison sentences in the history of the world…?
On September 8, BBC reported that a Turkish former crypto CEO and his two siblings were sentenced to over 11,000 years each on fraud charges.
Faruk Fatih Ozer, who ran crypto exchange Thodex until it imploded in 2021, is sentenced to 11,196 years in prison by a Turkish court for crimes including fraud https://t.co/V8PX23HZoW
— Bloomberg (@business) September 8, 2023
29-year-old Faruk Fatih Ozer, his sister Serap and his brother Guven have been found guilty of money laundering, fraud and organized crime.
The trio was involved in a scam related to the Thodex Exchange which collapsed without warning back in April 2021.
Ozer founded the cryptocurrency exchange Thodex in 2017 when Turkey’s currency, the lira, began declining rapidly.
He quickly became famous nationwide after being seen with prominent pro-government figures as his exchange grew into one of Turkey’s biggest platforms.
Unfortunately, it all came crashing down when he fled with investor assets to Albania in April 2021 where he was later arrested by Interpol on an international warrant and eventually extradited back to Turkey to face trial.
It is estimated that 2,027 people were affected by this scam with originally thought losses totaling $2 billion dollars but now estimated at around $13 million due to inflation struggles within Turkey.
Even though prosecutors initially appealed for 40,562 years worth of prison time for Ozer alone, he only received 11,196 years which is still quite a substantial sentence considering that death penalty has been abolished in Turkey since 2004.
Ozer told the court that if it had been criminal intentions driving him then he would not have acted so amateurishly pointing out how successful his company had become at such a young age as evidence for this claim.
Maybe if he’s lucky he’ll get out after 7,000 on good behavior?
