Turkish crypto-fraud suspect arrested in Albania

• Albanian police arrest the fugitive Turkish founder of crypto-exchange Thodex.
• He had been wanted by Interpol for suspected crypto fraud and had been on the run for a year.
• The suspect has been identified as Faruk Fatih Ozer by Albanian and Turkish media.

Albanian police arrested the fugitive Turkish founder of crypto-exchange Thodex, who had been wanted by Interpol for suspected crypto fraud and had been on the run for a year, according to police and media.

The suspect has been identified as Faruk Fatih Ozer by Albanian and Turkish media. The Turkish interior ministry announced that extradition proceedings had begun.

The suspect, identified only by the initials F.O., was apprehended in the southern Adriatic resort of Himare with two Albanian accomplices in an operation codenamed “Brain.”

“After many searches in several regions of the country, based on the information received on the operative route about the location of a person highly wanted by Turkish justice … Operation ‘Brain’ was organized and finalized,” police said in a statement.

“As part of this operation, Turkish citizen F.O., 28 years old, was arrested and detained.”

According to the statement, police seized laptops, mobile devices, and bank cards.

Thodex was handling daily crypto trades worth hundreds of millions of dollars when Turkish authorities raided it last year, arresting and imprisoning six suspects, including company executives.

Ozer fled the country, and the company’s website was shut down.

Sevgi Erarslan, a Thodex lawyer, previously stated that the exchange crashed due to extreme volatility in some cryptocurrencies and a hacking attack. She claimed that the suspicion of fraud was irrational.

Erarslan also stated that the company compensated more than 800 people who lost money when the exchange crashed.

The use of crypto assets for payment was later prohibited by Turkish authorities, and some local exchanges were investigated for fraud. Rising inflation and a drop in the lira currency have fueled a surge in the use of digital currencies in Turkey.

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