Police in Albania have arrested a Turkish businessman accused of stealing cryptocurrencies worth about $2 billion.
It is believed that Faruk Fatih Ozer fled Turkey last year after his company tempted hundreds of thousands of people to buy digital currencies through it, at a time when many in Turkey tended to invest in it due to the deterioration in the value of their savings in Turkish lira.
The Albanian authorities say that they arrested Ozer in the coastal city of Vlora, and that Turkey has started procedures to request his extradition.
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The Turkish authorities issued an arrest warrant for Ozer, founder of the cryptocurrency trading company Theodes, in April of last year.
Albanian authorities have told Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu that they have arrested Ozir, who is wanted by Interpol.
Theodes company had launched a fierce advertising campaign to attract investors and promised to distribute expensive cars to customers, and used in its advertisements well-known models, but the company suddenly suspended dealings in the month of April, and said that it needed five days to organize some matters related to foreign investments.
As a result, the Turkish authorities published a picture of the director of the company, Ozer, while he was leaving the country through Istanbul Airport to an unknown destination.
According to media reports, transactions were frozen while the company was in possession of more than two billion dollars belonging to hundreds of thousands of investors.
More than 60 people linked to the company were arrested.
The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had warned citizens of the dangers of dealing with digital currencies, and announced plans to regulate trading in them.
Many citizens in Turkey have turned to the digital currency to avoid the sharp depreciation of the Turkish lira.
The governments of a number of countries, including India, Russia and China, have announced that they will enact laws regulating dealing with digital currency in order to prevent criminal manipulation.
In recent years, the digital currency sector had benefited from the facilities of some major central banks, but the rise in the rate of inflation led to the imposition of stricter regulations and policies around the world, which pushed the digital currency on the path of collapse.