Faruk Fatih Ozer, the former boss of failed Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex, has faced a lengthy prison sentence after being found guilty of defrauding investors in a multi-million dollar fraud.
Ozer received a staggering 11,196 years in prison after a Turkish court found him guilty of fraud.
When the stock market collapsed in 2021, Ozer fled to Albania along with investor assets worth around $43 million. He was extradited to Turkey last year on charges of money laundering, fraud and organized crime.
The court also indicted Ozer’s brother and sister and sentenced them to equally long prison terms.
The case is reminiscent of the FTX scam orchestrated by Sam Bankman-Fried, who was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison.
One reason for Ozer’s long prison sentence is the fact that he was accused of 2,027 different crimes, representing every single person who was defrauded.
Another possible reason was Ozer’s apparent lack of remorse. During his trial, he told the court that he “would not have acted in such an amateurish manner” if his intent had been criminal.
“I’m smart enough to run any institution on Earth,” he said. “It shows in this company that I founded when I was 22.”