Faruk Fatih Özer, the Turkish cryptocurrency executive who was arrested in Albania and extradited to Turkey, has been found dead in his prison cell.
Turkish media report that the Tekirdağ Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into the incident. Özer’s body has been sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for autopsy.
Özer had been sentenced by the Istanbul Court to 11,196 years in prison for defrauding 391,000 citizens through cryptocurrency schemes, causing an estimated $2 billion in economic losses. The wide-ranging investigation implicated Özer’s siblings and four senior employees of Thodex, resulting in the arrest of at least 83 individuals. In subsequent trials, 21 defendants faced potential sentences of up to 40,564 years in prison.
In its final ruling, the 9th Criminal Court of Anatolia acquitted 16 of the 21 defendants, while four of seven previously detained individuals were released due to insufficient evidence. The remaining defendants received varying prison sentences.
Özer, who had been on the run since April 2021, was accused of orchestrating a large-scale fraud by creating and selling virtual currencies through his own company, deceiving approximately 400,000 investors before the platform was shut down.
