Faruk Fatih Özer, CEO of the collapsed Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex, was found dead in prison on Saturday, his lawyer confirmed to DL News.

“Faruk’s passing has deeply shaken us all,” Özer’s lawyer Sevgi Erarslan told DL News.

Özer was sentenced last year to 11,196 years in prison on charges including “founding and leading a criminal organisation,” “aggravated fraud,” and “money laundering.”

His crypto exchange Thodex abruptly shut down in April 2021 after halting withdrawals and locking users out of their accounts. It first cited complications due to outside investment, and later cyberattacks. Estimates of losses vary widely, ranging from $24 million in the final Turkish indictment to as much as $2.2 billion in earlier estimates by security firms.

Mertcan Bayraktar, a lawyer who represents seven victims, including one who had three Bitcoin — worth about $330,000 in today’s price —, told DL News that Özer’s death in prison “raises serious questions about both public confidence in the justice system and the conscience of society.”

Bayraktar previously told DL News that the case is especially sensitive since Özer’s business partner is the son of a Member of Turkish Parliament. That gave the debacle an uncomfortable political twist.

“The case involves multiple defendants, so proceedings will continue against the others,” Bayraktar said. “Meanwhile, compensation, debt recovery, and asset-seizure processes to recover victims’ losses are still underway.” Özer was convicted last year alongside his siblings.

Founded in 2017, Thodex had capitalised on Turkey’s inflation-driven appetite for cryptocurrency investment and trading, drawing in retail investors seeking refuge from a weakening lira.

Özer fled the country shortly before Thodex went offline and was captured in Albania in 2022 after months on the run. His extradition and subsequent conviction were seen as a landmark case for Turkey’s attempts to impose order on its lightly regulated cryptocurrency sector.

Özer’s lawyer Erarslan previously told DL News that “Özer did not simply let the company go bankrupt and move on with his life.”

Instead, she explained, he had solicited investors to bridge the gap in its reserves because the exchange “was experiencing numerous security threats and attacks on its servers, which led to a significant deficit in its cash reserves.”

His death is likely to renew scrutiny of prison conditions in Turkey and raise questions about the country’s efforts to regulate cryptocurrencies.

“At this point, the issue is not merely about one man’s death,” Bayraktar said. “It is about protecting the right to life of a person under state custody and maintaining public confidence in the justice system.”

“When authorities fail to provide full transparency, public doubts can persist for years. It is not enough for justice to be served — people must also be able to see and believe that it has been served.”

In a Telegram group chat of Turkish Thodex victims seen by DL News, conspiracy theories quickly filled the discussion.

“In Turkey, there’s nothing easier than kidnapping someone — especially since this guy had photos with a former minister,” one member wrote.

Another speculated that Özer might still be alive: “He could have been kidnapped and had his face altered with cosmetic surgery. There’s a lot of money at stake.”

But not everyone shared the suspicion. “He ended up destroying both himself and everyone else,” one participant said. “In the end, he lost everything too.”