A Turkish cryptocurrency govt and his two siblings have been sentenced to a complete of 11,196 years in prison for defrauding buyers of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, BBC reported on Saturday.
Faruk Fatih Ozer, 29, fled to Albania in 2021 after his Thodex alternate collapsed earlier than he was extradited again to Turkey in June and located responsible of cash laundering, fraud, and organised crime.
In accordance to the Anadolu Company, Ozer claimed: “I’m sensible sufficient to lead any establishment on Earth. That’s evident in this firm I established on the age of twenty-two.”
The Istanbul trial discovered his sister Serap and brother Guven responsible of the identical prices and have been sentenced individually for a number of crimes in opposition to 2,027 victims, main to the overall variety of years in the judgment.
For the reason that dying penalty was abolished in Turkey in 2004, uncommon jail sentences like this have been reasonably prevalent.
A TV cult preacher named Adnan Oktar was sentenced to 8,658 years in prison in 2022 for fraud and intercourse offences whereas 10 of his supporters got the identical punishment.
In accordance to AFP, prosecutors in Ozer’s case had requested for him to be sentenced to 40,562 years in prison.
Turks have adopted cryptocurrencies as a defence in opposition to a major lira decline over two years in the past, with the 2017-founded Thodex turning into one of many largest exchanges for digital currencies in the nation.
Ozer, a monetary whiz, gained nationwide fame by befriending pro-government figures. Nevertheless, the platform imploded in April 2021, inflicting investor property to disappear.
Ozer went into hiding and was arrested in Albania on a world warrant and extradited after an in depth authorized course of.
Turkish media reported Ozer fled with property price $2 billion.
The prosecutor’s indictment estimates complete losses to Thodex buyers at 356 million liras, which was price $43 million on the time of the alternate’s implosion however is now price $13 million due to inflation and the lira’s collapse.