A Turkish cryptocurrency boss and his two siblings were sentenced to 11,196 years in prison each for defrauding investors out of millions of dollars.
In 2021, after his Thodex exchange abruptly failed, 29-year-old Faruk Fatih Ozer fled to Albania with investor funds.
In June, he was extradited back to Turkey after being found guilty of organized crime, fraud, and money laundering.
State media quoted Ozer in court as saying that if his intent had been unlawful, he “would not have acted so amateurishly”.
“I am smart enough to lead any institution on Earth,” the Anadolu agency quoted him as saying.
“That is evident in this company I established at the age of 22.”
His brother Guven and sister Serap were also found guilty of the same charges during the brief trial in Istanbul.
Since the death penalty was abolished in 2004 to support efforts to join the European Union, such unusual prison sentences have become common in Turkey.
For fraud and sex crimes, TV cult preacher Adnan Oktar was sentenced to 8,658 years in prison in 2022. The same sentence was given to ten of his followers.
According to AFP, the prosecution had requested a sentence of 40,562 years in prison for Ozer.
Turkish citizens started using cryptocurrencies as a line of defense against a severe decline in the value of the lira that started more than two years ago.
One of the biggest virtual currency exchanges in the nation was Thodex, which was established in 2017.
Ozer rose to national prominence as a financial prodigy and ingratiated himself into the establishment by making friends with important pro-government figures.
On the other hand, in April 2021, the platform abruptly collapsed. Ozer went into hiding, and investor assets disappeared as well.
An Interpol international warrant led to his arrest in Albania last year, and after a protracted legal process, he was extradited.
Earlier, the Turkish media reported that Ozer had fled with assets worth $2 billion (£1.6 billion).
But according to the indictment filed by the prosecutor, the total losses suffered by Thodex investors amount to 356 million liras.
When the exchange collapsed, that sum was worth approximately $43 million.
Due to escalating inflation and the devaluation of the Turkish Lira on global markets, the same sum is now equivalent to roughly $13m.
Source-BBC
