On January 31, according to foreign media reports, the 22nd District Court of Istanbul, Turkey, dropped the "organized crime" charge against Thodex founder Faruk Fatih Ozer, but still upheld his fraud charge and continued to detain him. Ozer was charged with defrauding more than 400,000 users, involving US$2 billion, in connection with the 2021 Thodex exchange crash, and was sentenced to 11,196 years in prison in September 2023. His legal team said it would promote further commutation of sentences and stressed that "the judicial process has not yet been concluded." Thodex used to be a head exchange in Turkey. It suddenly closed in April 2021, leaving 391,000 users unable to withdraw cash. Ozer was arrested and extradited in Albania in 2022 after absconding. The court previously found him guilty of money laundering, fraud and other crimes, but the latest ruling that some of the charges lacked evidence.