TIRANA, Aug. 30, 2022 – Albanian police say they have arrested Fatih Ozer, one of Turkey’s most wanted men, who is accused of scamming nearly 400,000 people out of millions dollars through a scam involving a cryptocurrency exchange.
Turkish authorities have long suspected 28-year-old Ozer was hiding in Albania, where police have been looking for him for more than a year, including posting wanted posters with his photo and conducting several fruitless operations to capture him.
Albanian law enforcement finally caught up with Ozer in the seaside resort town of Himara, after authorities traced phone calls with suspected criminals in the central Albanian city of Elbasan, where Ozer is believed to have spent much of his time hiding in Albania. Two Albanian citizens were arrested with him, suspected of helping the fugitive.
Ozer is wanted internationally by Interpol Ankara on a warrant by the High Court of Istanbul on the criminal offenses of “creating a criminal organization” and “fraud with serious consequences.” Turkish prosecutors are pursuing jail sentences totaling thousands of years for the founders and executives of Thodex, the company Ozer led.
Albanian and Turkish authorities are now working on an extradition of Ozer back to his homeland.
The Turkish Interior Minister spoke on the phone with his Albanian counterpart, Bledi Çuci, who issued a statement congratulating the police for their successful operations.
Thodex was part of the cryptocurrency boom driven by local investors seeking to protect their savings from soaring inflation and an unstable currency.
Last year, Ozer disappeared following the shutdown of the platform. Earlier he had made a statement from an unknown location in which he promised to repay investors and to return to Turkey to face justice at a later date.
