Albanian law enforcement has detained Faruk Fatih Özer, the founder and former CEO of Thodex cryptocurrency exchange, at the request of the Turkish authorities.

According to the statement made by the Ministry of Interior, the identity of the detained person was confirmed by biometric examination.

The Interpol branch started the extradition process for Özer, about whom a “red notice” was issued.

On April 20, 2021, Thodex unexpectedly stopped trading. Initially, the platform demonstrated the technical work, but later claimed to have handed over the work to a “major partner”, which will supposedly take 4-5 days. Users were concerned that their social media accounts were closed by the company.

As part of the investigation into the alleged exit scam, authorities have issued arrest warrants for 78 people linked to the platform. Most of the suspects were arrested.

However, according to media reports, Ozer flew to Albania on April 20. He previously assured Twitter users that he had no plans to hide.

It was learned that in April 2022, the court sought 40,564 years in prison for Özer and 20 people suspected of carrying out the fraud scheme.

The investigation estimates the damage from the exchange’s activities to be 356 million Turkish lira (~$24 million). According to Chainalysis analysts, that figure was $2.6 billion.

Also remember that in April 2021, the Turkish exchange Vebitcoin, for which the authorities started an investigation, stopped working.

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