Turkish Police Arrest 62 Suspects Linked to Crypto Exchange Thodex Scam

Following reports of an alleged $2 billion exit scam perpetrated by the Thodex cryptocurrency exchange, Turkish Police said they have arrested 62 suspects in connection to the trading firm.

According to reports by Daily Sabah today, police noted that the arrest was made in eight provinces after several complaints were filed against the exchange by thousands of affected victims.

The report added that prosecutors have also issued arrest warrants for 16 more people who they believe are related to the alleged fraud.

Furthermore, Turkey’s Ministry of Justice has slammed an international red alert notice on Thodex CEO Fatih Faruk Özer who was alleged to have fled the country to Albania after police launched a manhunt for him.

The justice ministry has requested that Özer be extradited back to Turkey in order to face the charges leveled against him.

Thodex Exchange’s Saga

Recall that several Turks took to their social media pages to air their grievances about the unannounced stoppage of trading activities on the Thodex exchange on Wednesday.

Coinfomania reported that out of 400,000 users registered on the platform, about 390,000 investors were unable to gain access to their accounts, which caused panic in the country. The report also said that the CEO disappeared with investors’ cryptocurrencies worth $2 billion.

The affected traders were urged to file charges against Thodex and its founders because the development bears the mark of a scam.

Seeing the outrage of Turks, the Thodex CEO took to his Twitter account to deny the allegations that he fled with users’ funds.

He said that he only went for a meeting with foreign investors and will soon be back in the country. Despite defending himself, he went ahead and deleted his social media accounts, thus raising further suspicions.

He later published an official statement yesterday via the company’s account on the popular microblogging platform, Twitter stating that contrary to the widespread notion that investors’ funds had gone missing, the company purposely shutdown operations due to suspected hackers’ activities.

Per the statement, the company noted that it believed hackers who previously attacked its server in 2018 and stole TL25 million ($3.1), were recently observed lurking around the platform.

The activity, according to Thodex, resulted in unusual fluctuations, which affected 30,000 user accounts. He assured the victims that they would be duly compensated in earnest.