11,196 Years in Prison

Faruk Özer made crypto seem like the sation to decades of economic dysimction. Then he became Turkey's most wanted-and hated-man.

- BY Jenna Scatena

A LINE OF IMPATIENT TRAVELERS QUEUING behind him. He pulled his face mask below his chin for the security camera. Surely he was nervous. The 27-year-old had unruly black hair, a boy-band face, and a patchy beard.

Normally he overcompensated for his callow features by dressing in a pressed three-piece suit. But this spring day he wore black trainers and a navy-blue sweater hastily pulled over a white polo shirt, as if he had dressed in a dash. A small backpack was slung over his right shoulder.

He looked like someone who could have been going on a last-minute day trip-or someone planning to never come back. At 5:57 pm on April 20, 2021, the guard stamped his Turkish passport and Özer shuffled through the crowd to Gate C, a flash drive containing a rumored $2 billion in crypto stashed in his belongings.

After Özer's plane reached Tirana, Albania, at 9:24 that night, he checked into the Mondial, a popular 4-star business hotel in the capital's commercial district. A couple of days later, he looked at his social media accounts. A mob was very angry with him: Customers couldn't access their money on the exchange Thodex, where he was founder and CEO, and people were accusing him of absconding with their funds.