Turkish regulators seek life penalty for crypto scammers

TL; DR Breakdown

• Turkish regulators want scammers incarcerated for life
• The regulators used the Thodex scam as a benchmark
• The crypto sector confines to suffer scam attacks

In the last few years, the crypto sector has witnessed more scams and hacks related to digital assets than in the past. This is because these malicious actors are getting smarter as every day passes. In a bid to curb their activities across the market, Turkish regulators have opined that courts should start to slam them with longer sentences. Going by the information available, regulators want the smallest penalty for these activities to be a massive amount of years.

Turkish regulators used the Thodex scam as a benchmark

In a report made available by local news stations in the country, this recent statement is connected with the suspects involved in the Thodex crypto exchange. Turkish regulators have apprehended criminals suspected of being involved in the crypto exchange scam. The scammer was said to have carted away with $108 million.

Authorities have pinpointed the top executive and CEO of the exchange, Faruk Fatih Ozer as a prime suspect in the case. Notably, the CEO is presently out of touch and suspected to be on the run. The issue with Thodex started last year after the crypto exchange announced to its users that it was involved in some sale that would see it handover the exchange. Thodex was one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the country, handling transactions for a massive amount of the country’s population.

The crypto sector continues to suffer attacks

With users unable to carry out activities on their accounts, the police moved swiftly to arrest top members of the exchange across the country. After the arrests, there were reports that the company had already embezzled funds belonging to investors to the tune of $2 billion. Although the policy does not have the prime suspect in the case in its custody, regulators are still going on with the case.

Some of the offenses that were slammed on Ozer include founding a criminal entity and misusing bank information, among other offenses. If the founder is eventually apprehended, he would be looking at more than 40,000 years of jail time. Although the Thodex scam shook the country, Turkey has witnessed other scams and hack attacks across the country recently.

Asides from the Ronin hack, which was worth $600 million, there have been other mind-blowing hacks in the country. These activities have continued to push traders and potential traders out of the crypto sector. This was one of the reasons why the Turkish regulators believed that a penalty of a huge number of years would make the criminals rethink.