
The Turkish "King" of cryptocurrencies, Faruk Ozer, has been sentenced to 11,196 years in prison. The founder of Thodex, who was convicted of money laundering, fraud and the establishment of a criminal organization. Prosecutors had requested the 29-year-old be sentenced to 40,562 years in prison.
“I'm smart enough to lead any institution on Earth. This is evident in this company I created at the age of 22. I would not have acted so amateurishly if this was a criminal organization," Faruk Ozer is reported to have said in court, reports Anadolu.
Also, his two brothers, Güven Özer and Serap Özer, were sentenced to 11,190 years each on charges of "creating, directing and joining a criminal organization", "fraud". "money laundering".
On the other hand, the defendants Faruk Fatih Özer, Güven Özer and Serap Özer were sentenced to a fine of 135 million Turkish lira for "fraud using information systems". The other defendants have been sentenced to varying degrees of imprisonment for various crimes.
Turkey is known for handing out sentences of many years in prison, which became more common after it abolished the death penalty in 2004 to aid its efforts to join the European Union.
The young Turkish man was declared internationally wanted, after the High Court of Istanbul in 2021 issued an arrest warrant against him, for the criminal offenses of "Creation of a criminal organization" and "Fraud with serious consequences".
He is accused of defrauding 391,000 citizens, through cryptocurrencies, fraud with economic damage of 2 billion dollars.