Turkey to impose 40,000-year prison term for crypto crime

Around 40,000 years ago, humans began making thin stone axes and objects from bones, tusks, and horns, as well as the simplest wooden tools. It will take the same number of years for the former employees of the Turkish crypto exchange Thodex to get out of prison.

Last March, the Turkish exchange Thodex froze the accounts of all users. Its CEO Faruk Fatih Özer fled the country, taking with him an estimated $ 2 billion of clients' money. At that point, 400,000 people were using the exchange’s services, and daily sales exceeded half a billion dollars. The growth of interest in cryptocurrencies in Turkey has occurred amid the fall of the local national currency (at its peak, up to 16% per month).

The Turkish prosecutor is demanding long prison terms for the defendants in the Thodex case — he wants a total of 40 thousand years for the 21 team members. At the same time, the prosecution mentions a much more modest amount — «only» $ 24 million. The CEO himself, according to the Turkish authorities, is hiding in Albania. It is logical that the authorities of this country do not surrender the former CEO — according to 2015, the top 10 richest people in Albania had assets of just over $ 1 billion. We can say that Albanians have «made Xs».