Thodex suddenly stopped trading in April 2021 due to an unspecified outside investment. It needed a four- to five-day pause in trading to work.
But after one day, Özer said that the company had been forcefully stopped trading due to cyberattacks. Though, claimed that customer funds were safe. That time, he promised to return the investors’ capital shortly.
But on the same day of that claim, 62 people were confined by Turkish police. All the systems and computers of that company were seized. Also, accounts were frozen.
The Suspicion Raised :
After that incident, Özer flew to Albania to get rid of administrative activity. Though, the Turkish govt. was getting ready to have him extradited. The manhunt continued for months.
Later, Özer was found in Vlorë. Vlorë is a coastal city, the third most crowded region in Albania. Özer’s identity was marked and confirmed through biometric documents.
In April 2021, it was claimed that Thodex had transferred $125 million in Bitcoin to Kraken. Kraken is a U.S. exchange. Thodex had transferred the amount before it closed. Whitestream, the Blockchain tracking firm that discovered the incident. It was said that it appeared to be a “cash out operation,” and executives stole customer funds.
The Govt. Steps :
The government of the country has expressed concern about high crypto uptake in the country. The govt. aimed to pass a bill seeking to establish new rules for the crypto industry.
Thodex was unable to access its digital assets due to the trading platform abruptly halted trading. The platform is filled with fraud allegations and thousands of criminal complaints.
Additionally, the platform shared a statement on its website this week. According to the statement, it would be closed for four to five days as a sale process is taking place.
According to the post, their services will be closed for about five working days until the share transfer completes. However, users do not need to worry about their investments.
Before that statement, the trading was considered the first halt for “six hours of planned maintenance work.”
But the users who were unable to withdraw their capital or access their accounts took to Twitter voicing the concern that they may have been scammed.
Defendant Statements Of The Founder :
Existing in the market since 2017, Thodex claimed that “negative” media reports regarding the company were not the truth.
It claimed that the Global prominent banks and funds, whose names they were going to announce when the agreement process will be completed, have been eager to invest in their company and even the companies proposed a partnership for a long time.
According to them, for that process, the transactions need to be stopped temporarily and the sale process required completion.
However, according to the primary assessment by police, Thodex CEO Faruk Fatih Özer had flown from Istanbul Airport. He is suspected to have fled to Thailand. He had with him $2 billion worth of digital assets. He has stopped all his social media accounts for safety as the reports say.
Later, Özer did not continue his silence. He published a new statement through the Thodex Twitter account.
Rejecting the allegations, Özer said that in the platform where approximately 700,000 users conduct crypto trading. So, the platform has never exploited or done any fraud to anyone, and nor will it in the future.
He also explained that when the company had undergone a cyberattack in 2018, it had gone through a total TL 25 million loss. But it never intends to fill the blank space through illegal activities. He added the platform has recently gone through “unusual fluctuations” in company accounts that took place during the almost three-month-long partnership negotiations.
