Turkish police said they have arrested dozens of people in an investigation related to a crypto-currency trading platform and are seeking to arrest its founder in Albania after Turks filed criminal complaints in which they said they were defrauded.
The platform “Theodex,” which traded hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the digital currency daily, said on its website Thursday that it would be closed for four to five days due to a sale.
But comments widely circulated by Turkish media revealed that users who were unable to withdraw their money or access their accounts expressed fears on Twitter that they had been exposed to a scam.
Istanbul police said in a statement that they began raids at 6 a.m. local time in eight provinces today, Friday, to arrest 78 suspects. Police searched the company’s offices in Istanbul yesterday and confiscated documents.
The official Anatolia news agency reported that 62 people have been arrested so far.
Istanbul police said the company’s founder and CEO, Faruk Fatih Ozer, fled to the Albanian capital, Tirana, on Tuesday.
The international police force “Interpol” issued an arrest warrant for Ozer on Friday, at the request of Ankara.
