As of writing, the April 2021 $2 billion Thodex exit scam is the second largest exit scam recorded in the Web3 is Going Great leaderboard. Thodex was one of the largest crypto exchanges in Turkey, until its CEO, Faruk Fatih Özer, disappeared along with $2 billion in customer funds.
He was arrested in August 2022 after a year on the run. Now, he and his brother and sister have all been sentenced to 11,196 years in prison – sentences so over the top that one has to wonder if perhaps Turkish prosecutors are worried the Özers are some kind of crypto-focused vampire crime family. They will also pay a 135 million lira fine (~$5 million).
