Turkish prosecutor wants to imprison Thodex execs for 40,564 years

In what would be the most severe jail sentence of all time, a Turkish prosecutor wants to imprison 21 executives of the now-defunct crypto exchange Thodex for up to 40,564 years, Bloomberg reported on March 31, citing reports from local media.

In April 2021, one of the then-popular crypto exchanges Thodex said its platform is “temporarily closed” to address an “abnormal fluctuation in the company accounts.” However, the website never resumed and customers lost access to their funds.

Soon after, the exchange’s top executives were accused of rug-pulling nearly $2 billion from over 400,000 investors. As of now, 77 people have already been arrested in connection with the incident, but its CEO Thodex CEO Faruk Fatih Ozer is still missing after he fled the country.

Per the latest reports, 21 suspects have been charged, including Özer, by a Turkish prosecutor who seeks to sentence each suspect with a 40,564 year jail time. The indictment stated that they have defrauded investors off TRY 356 million, or $24 million, which is far below the previous estimates of $2.6 billion.

The defendants have been accused of three main charges: Establishment and operation of a crime organization; fraud through informatics systems; and money laundering.

Cryptocurrencies have become increasingly popular in Turkey as rising inflation and economic crisis pushed many citizens towards digital assets. Even though Turkey banned cryptocurrencies as means of payment, it ranks fourth in terms of countries with the largest number of crypto users.

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