Thodex transferred 125 million bitcoins to Kraken before closing

[Leviathan.007]

Between August 2020 and February 2021, there were approximately 5,000 bitcoins worth approximately $ 125 million at the time of the transaction (and more than $ 280 million at today's prices, according to the Israeli company Whitestream), Transferred from wallets belonging to the Thodex exchange to the American exchange in Kraken.
Whitestream, which has a contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, said it appeared to be a "cash withdrawal operation" by Thodex. In other words, Thodex may have stolen bitcoins from its customers before sending them money and sent them to Kraken for recovery.
According to Levy, a collection of Bitcoin wallet addresses controlled by Thodex, through an intermediary wallet collection, sent the bitcoins to the destination address. Most of this money has also been transferred to Kraken.
"The bottom line is that Kraken has received a lot of bitcoins from Thodex customers," Levy told the Descript news website.
Asked if there was an honest explanation for this, Levy said: "This volume of transaction can only be justified if Thodex conducted all of its financial activities through Kraken. "But that is not the case, and it is very strange."
Turkey last week arrested more than 60 people in connection with the Thodex exit scam, confiscated the company's computers and froze the company's bank accounts.
Six others were jailed on Thursday on suspicion of involvement in the scam, including family members of Faruk Fatih Ozer, the managing director of the exchange, who fled to Albania shortly before the exchange closed. Turkey has reportedly demanded Ozer's arrest. Ozer claims that the exchange's problems are related to a cyber attack, not a scam.

Source: https://decrypt.co/69604/turkish-exchange-thodex-sent-125m-bitcoin-kraken-before-closing-report

[AB de Royse777]

Source: https://decrypt.co/69604/turkish-exchange-thodex-sent-125m-bitcoin-kraken-before-closing-report

Not justifying anything, but it seems a centralized exchange can do whatever they want to do with your coin.

When there are enough coins, and you think you had enough for you then move the coins to some unknown place make a story that it was stolen/hacked. Enjoy the rest of the life.

I wonder existing all exchanges will do the same. What reason you think Binance, Kucoin, Bettrix, kraken, Coinbase has not done the same yet? Cryptocurrency ecosystem really needs p2p adoption and say no to those centralized exchanges. It does not matter how well established they are.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Turkey last week arrested more than 60 people in connection with the Thodex exit scam, confiscated the company's computers and froze the company's bank accounts.
Six others were jailed on Thursday on suspicion of involvement in the scam, including family members of Faruk Fatih Ozer<snip>

Nice to see some justice (hopefully) for one of these exit scams perpetrated by an unscrupulous exchange.  If what the article said is true about Thodex not using Kraken for any of their business, I can't see this as being anything other than a scam on Thodex's part. 

Not being familiar with them, I have to ask: was Thodex a legitimate, regulated exchange in Turkey or was it one of these smaller, shady exchanges?  If it was the former, it makes me wonder how they thought they were going to get away with this.  It's crazy what a spike in the price of bitcoin brings out in people--and it's not a stretch in this case to say that it was pure greed.

Hopefully their customers get their funds back.

[khaled0111]

Not being familiar with them, I have to ask: was Thodex a legitimate, regulated exchange in Turkey or was it one of these smaller, shady exchanges?

They have an MSB license and the Turkish authorities certainly knew about their existence as they've been operating since 2017, have bank accounts and their head office is located in Istanbul one of the largest cities of Turkey.
I don't believe it was a small exchange since, accirding to CMC, their trading volume exceeded $585M and their CEO managed run away with more than 2 billions dollars of customers funds.

[Husires]

Wouldn't it be stupid to steal clients' money and send it to a central platform that could freeze that money? They could hold it for several years, convert it into mixing services and pull it out in small parts.

Kraken will not exchange 5,000 Bitcoins without performing identity verification.
The case is in the judiciary and courts, it will take some time to find out the truth and I hope it end good.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

In a new development, the CEO of the exchange who had disappeared was arrested in Albania according to several news sources

Turkey said Albanian police have arrested Fatih Ozer, the founder and CEO of cryptocurrency trading platform Thodex, who has been sought by Turkish authorities over fraud accusations. The process to extradite Ozer to Turkey has started, according to a statement from the Interior Ministry. 

What was he thinking trying to pull of such an exit scam?

[Potato Chips]

What was he thinking trying to pull of such an exit scam?

Fortunately, some scammers can be dum dums which is why it wouldn’t hurt to check the money trail when you get scammed because who knows, maybe they don’t know what they’re doing lol.

I was checking related articles and it seems our guy also pulled an emotional appeal card lol.

In a statement released shortly after Thodex collapsed, Özer said he had thought of giving himself up or committing suicide before eventually fleeing the country to “stay alive and fight, work and repay my debts," according to a [Bloomberg report](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-22/turks-suspect-massive-crypto-losses-as-exchange-ceo-goes-missing#xj4y7vzkg). He added: “The day I repay all my debt, I will return to my country and give myself to justice.”

[2stout]

Another of the countless examples of not your keys not your coins.  For some, it's a risk worth taking until it isn't.  It's stuff like this that unfortunately invites regulation.  A lot of regulation that's in place is due to proactive or reactive response to human greed or the potential for it.  Free market doesn't equal free to screw over, doing so invites over-corrective efforts that are not desired.  However, sadly, the ones screwed over bear the brunt more than the culprits, at least initially.

[Darker45]

Source: https://decrypt.co/69604/turkish-exchange-thodex-sent-125m-bitcoin-kraken-before-closing-report

Not justifying anything, but it seems a centralized exchange can do whatever they want to do with your coin.

I don't think so. "Whatever they want" is not the right phrase for it. After all, these are legally registered custodial services. They must have certain responsibilities over their customers' funds because they are the ones who are safekeeping and controlling them. A financial custodian must have specific accountabilities over other people's funds they are in custody of.

Wouldn't it be stupid to steal clients' money and send it to a central platform that could freeze that money? They could hold it for several years, convert it into mixing services and pull it out in small parts.

The transactions were not simply a single Thodex ==> Kraken transaction. There were intermediaries. Several Thodex addresses sent different amounts to different wallets and from there to several destinations including Kraken. So Kraken was just a final destination, one among a number of others. In other words, there was indeed laundering, or an attempt to hide the tracks. It so happened that Kraken served as a major retrieval point.

[Rikafip]

In a new development, the CEO of the exchange who had disappeared was arrested in Albania according to several news sources

Hah, he didn't get too far from Turkey despite all that stolen money.

What was he thinking trying to pull of such an exit scam?

If you are smart and think ahead, 2 billions are more than enough to disappear forever, but since he was caught in Albania (lol), he obviously wasn't too smart and didn't prepare his exit scam properly.

[dkbit98]

What was he thinking trying to pull of such an exit scam?

Get rich or die tryin' while stealing money from other people
Albania is known as one of the most corrupt countries in Europe and possibly world, so who knows what people from there promised him, maybe new identity and citizenship with different name.
Who knows what really happened, someone probably snitched him, but Albania is not that far from Turkey, and it was not so easy to travel in last few years.
His new accommodation is already waiting for him in Turkish prison.

If you are smart and think ahead, 2 billions are more than enough to disappear forever, but since he was caught in Albania (lol), he obviously wasn't too smart and didn't prepare his exit scam

Or outside circumstances and travel restrictions messed up with his plans
2 billions sounds like a lot of money but with current inflation, money printing and rising prices I wouldn't be surprised if that value gets similar like in Zimbabwe soon.

[examplens]

What was he thinking trying to pull of such an exit scam?

If you are smart and think ahead, 2 billions are more than enough to disappear forever, but since he was caught in Albania (lol), he obviously wasn't too smart and didn't prepare his exit scam properly.

it seems that he did not pay the taxes in the right place or to the right people. however, this does not necessarily mean the end of his career, with that kind of money, anything can be done, even in countries that are much more organized than Albania.