Mr Özer, who established the Thodex cryptocurrency exchange at the age of 22, gained notoriety for fleeing to Albania in 2021 after his platform abruptly collapsed and investor assets vanished.

Initially a darling of Türkiye’s financial world and even close to pro-government figures, Mr Özer saw his empire crumble in April 2021. Following his arrest in Albania on an Interpol warrant and a complicated extradition process, he was tried in Istanbul alongside his siblings.

They were found guilty on multiple charges including fraud, money laundering, and organised crime, victimising 2,027 investors. Although the prosecutor had sought a sentence of 40,562 years for Mr Özer, the court opted for the still extraordinary term of over 11,000 years for each defendant.

The practice of giving such extreme sentencing lengths has become more frequent in Türkiye since the abolition of the death penalty in 2004.

During the trial, Mr Özer audaciously claimed that he is “smart enough to lead any institution on Earth”, arguing that if he had criminal intentions, he would “not have acted so amateurishly”, the BBC reports.

While Mr Özer was previously reported to have fled with assets valued at $2 billion (now worth around £1.6bn), the prosecution estimated that the total losses to investors were about 356 million liras – equivalent to $43m (£34.3m) at the time of the exchange’s collapse.

Due to rampant inflation and the collapse of the Turkish lira, that amount has since dwindled to approximately $13m (£10.4m).