your current location is：Home > Finance > NewsletterHomeNewsletter

　　Recently, Faruk Fatih Ozer , the 28-year-old founder of the Turkish cryptocurrency trading platform Thodex , was arrested in Albania, ending a year-long hunt by Interpol.

　　A statement on the official website of the Albanian government department said Zell had been arrested in the country's southwestern coastal city of Vlora and his identity had been confirmed by biometric technology. It is reported that the process of Zell's extradition back to Turkey was led by the chief judge of Interpol.

　　In April 2021 , the Thodex exchange founded by Zell went bankrupt. According to local Turkish media reports, he fled with cryptocurrency worth $ 2 billion (about 13.8 billion yuan) and was last seen at Istanbul Airport in Turkey.

　　Subsequently, the Thodex team was searched and arrested by the Turkish police. The police issued an arrest warrant for 78 staff members of the platform, and 62 people were eventually detained. Zell was on the Interpol Red Notice list before he was arrested.

　　Zell's red notice remains on the Interpol website. According to information on the official website, Zell was born in the Turkish port city of Gebze in 1994. Interpol said Zell was suspected of establishing a criminal organization and serious fraud.

　　At the time, local Turkish media reported that Zell and his co-conspirators had illegally obtained $ 2 billion from at least 400,000 investors. A report by cryptocurrency data firm Chainalysis estimated that the exchange caused losses to investors at about $ 2.52 billion, accounting for 90% of the total losses incurred by global cryptocurrency exchanges in 2021 .

　　The case has now officially entered judicial proceedings.

　　However, judging from the official indictment, prosecutors determined that the amount of losses involved in the Zell team was not that much. In April , Turkish prosecutors released an indictment against Zell’s team, saying the Thodex exchange caused losses to investors of about $ 24 million.

　　Prosecutors charged Zell with forming a criminal organization, committing fraud through an informatics system, and laundering the proceeds of criminal activity, and asked the court to sentence him to 40,600 years in prison, the indictment said . were sentenced to similar sentences .

　　According to public information, Thodex was established in 2017 and is the first cryptocurrency exchange in Turkey to be licensed by the US FinCen MSB , with about 700,000 customers in Turkey.

　　In April 2021 , Thodex suddenly stopped all trading services. In response to the rumors that the platform ran away with money, Thodex issued two announcements.

　　For the first time, Thodex issued an announcement saying that the service will only be suspended for 4-5 days to evaluate the cooperation agreement with " world-renowned banks and financing companies " .

　　A day later, as the founder of the company, Zeer issued another statement on the platform's official social media, saying that the company's circuit encountered technical problems, and the company's network security had hidden dangers and needed time to repair. He also stated that he would never harm his country and nation.

　　Zell said he had considered suicide, but added, " I have decided to live, fight, work, and pay off my debts to you. The day I pay all my debts, I will go back to my country and get justice. "

　　Before fleeing to Albania, Zell was found to have moved $ 125 million worth of bitcoin to Kraken , another world-renowned exchange .

　　The shock of the currency circle this year has caused large and small exchanges to shut down and run away, and the high risks of virtual currency business have been fully revealed in this bear market.

　　my country strictly prohibits the operation of virtual currency businesses, and the regulatory authorities have repeatedly stated that they reminded the high risks of virtual currency transactions.

　　In August this year , the Cyberspace Administration of China announced that in accordance with the spirit of the "Notice on Further Preventing and Handling the Risk of Hype Risks in Virtual Currency Transactions", the Cyberspace Administration of China urges and guides major websites and platforms to effectively implement their main responsibilities, and continue to maintain high pressure on virtual currency transactions. In order to combat the situation, increase the self-examination and self-correction of information content and accounts that induce virtual currency investment.

　　In September 2021 , the central bank, the Supreme Court and other departments jointly issued the "Notice on Further Preventing and Disposing of Hype Risks in Virtual Currency Transactions", which clearly stated that virtual currency does not have the same legal status as fiat currency; virtual currency-related business activities are illegal Financial activities; overseas virtual currency exchanges providing services to residents in China through the Internet are also illegal financial activities.

　　There are legal risks involved in virtual currency investment and trading activities. If any legal person, unincorporated organization or natural person invests in virtual currency and related derivatives and violates public order and good customs, the relevant civil legal acts are invalid, and the resulting losses shall be borne by themselves, and they are suspected of disrupting the financial order. , Endangering financial security, the relevant departments shall investigate and punish according to law.