A rug pull scam that had Thodex crypto exchange involved is back in the news with its ongoing lawsuit. The indictment of the Istanbul-based company has prosecutors pursuing jail sentences totaling thousands of years for founders and executives.
CEO Faruk Fatih Ozer flew to Albania with more than $2 billion in investor funds. Turkish authorities continue to have an active international warrant out for Ozer’s arrest, and Interpol has issued a red notice warrant for his arrest.
The prosecutor is seeking up to 40,564 years in prison for each of the 21 defendants charged with “Establishing and Managing an Organization to Commit a Crime, Being a Member of an Organization, Fraud by Using Information Systems, Banks or Credit Institutions as Tools, Fraud by Traders or Company Managers and Cooperative Managers, and Laundering the Values of Assets Resulting from Crime.”
According to the indictment, total losses from the exchange’s collapse totaled 356 million liras ($24 million), far less than the $2.6 billion estimated in a February report by Chainalysis. According to the report, Thodex handled roughly 90% of the total value lost globally to so-called rug pulls in 2021.
