The CEO of a Turkish cryptocurrency exchange has reportedly absconded with $2 billion in investor funds, leaving more than 300,000 users concerned about their money

Crypto platform Thodex said it was "temporarily closed" to deal with "unusual fluctuations in the company's accounts," according to a statement on its website However, according to local media reports, the company's founder, Faruk Fatih Ozer, has fled to Albania, where an international manhunt continues

Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency has since reported that 62 people have been interrogated over his disappearance and the closure of the exchange

However, Ozar himself posted a lengthy statement on the platform's website, saying the claims were "baseless" In it, he claimed that he had traveled abroad to meet with foreign investors, that only 30,000 of the 700,000 accounts were affected by the "suspicious circumstances," and called the allegations "a smear campaign against both myself and my firm"

According to Bloomberg, Thodex recently offered millions of free Doji coins to new registrants, but claimed that many users did not receive them

The news comes amid turmoil over cryptocurrencies in Turkey Last week, the central bank promised to tighten regulations on crypto trading On Friday, another exchange, Vebitcoin, also shut down operations, and four employees were reportedly detained shortly thereafter