The Turkish police has detained 62 people as part of the investigation into crypto exchange Thodex, Reuters has reported citing local media. According to them, thousands of Turks have filed criminal complaints.
Thodex stopped all its operations last Wednesday without warning. As a result, the 391,000 active clients of the platform lost access to their wallets. Lawyer Oğuz Evren Kılıç, who filed a lawsuit against Thodex, has said citing a police report that Thodex CEO Faruk Fatih Özer left Turkey on Tuesday night and has deleted his social media accounts. In addition, the company has stopped all customer support. Kılıç estimates that the amount of funds in Thodex's accounts to be between $2 billion and $10 billion.
The prosecutor's office has issued arrest warrants for 78 people. Istanbul police claims the company's founder and CEO, Faruk Fatih Özer, took a flight to Tirana, the capital of Albania, on Tuesday.
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The public prosecutor's office has reportedly opened an investigation for allegedly defrauding citizens. The Turkish Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) has blocked Thodex's bank accounts and launched its own investigation.
The platform's representatives argue the "negative" reports in the media do not correspond to reality, and the banks and funds, whose names it promises to disclose later, wanted to invest in Thodex and become its partners.