A court in the Albanian city of Elbasan has authorized the extradition to Turkey of the founder and chief executive of the now-defunct Turkish crypto exchange Thodex. The 27-year-old Faruk Fatih Ozer was detained in the Balkan nation at the end of August. The order follows a series of court hearings throughout the past three months. Quoted by Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, Judge Elis Dine pointed out that the decision can be appealed to the Durres Court of Appeals within 15 days.

Ozer fled Turkey after Thodex, which had attracted 400,000 users during the crypto boom in the country, suddenly went offline in the spring of 2021. He was last seen on footage from Istanbul airport and was believed to have departed for Albania with $2 billion of investor money.