-0.8 C
Frankfurt am Main

Turkish investment app founder gets over 45,000 years in prison for defrauding gamers

Must read

A Turkish court has handed down a prison sentence of more than 45,000 years to Mehmet Aydın, who allegedly defrauded thousands of Turks of millions of dollars by way of an online investment app known as Çiftlik Bank (Farm Bank), the private DHA news agency reported.

A high criminal court in İstanbul on Monday concluded the trial of Aydın, his brother Fatih and 18 additional defendants. The Aydın brothers and three other defendants were being held in pretrial detention.

Both of the brothers was given 45,376 years in prison on charges of theft using electronic data processing systems, banks or lending institutions, establishing an organization for the purpose of committing crimes and laundering the assets acquired from an offense.

Mehmet Aydın pleaded for acquittal in his final remarks to the court, claiming that he did not found the investment app with the intention of defrauding people.

He said he can cover the losses of the victims if the government allows him to use his seized money and assets.

Koray Hasgül, another defendant in pretrial detention, and six other defendants who were tried in absentia were also given the same sentence on the same charges.

The court also imposed a fine of TL 496 million ($13.8 million) on the Aydın brothers and ruled that the fine be paid in 24 monthly installments.

The remaining 11 defendants received prison sentences of varying lengths on the same charges.

Aydın and his business partners came up with the Çiftlik Bank game in 2016, inspired by the popular social media game FarmVille. Users would buy virtual animals and farm equipment with real money. Aydın promised users their money would be invested in real livestock on various farms across the country. Products were also put up for sale in some stores and on “show-farms” to woo investors. Users would be paid for time spent playing the game.

An investigation launched in March 2018 based on allegations that the company operated a Ponzi scheme led to the seizure of its assets and the arrest of some of its executives. It was later claimed that Aydın fled to Uruguay in 2018 with more than 1.1 billion Turkish lira (around $280 million according to the exchange rate in effect at the time) collected from some 132,000 customers.

In 2019 INTERPOL issued a Red Notice for Aydın, wanted by Turkish authorities on charges of “theft by using as an instrument electronic data processing system, banks or lending institutions,” “theft by deception of the executives of a merchant or a company or of the executives of a cooperative,” “establishing an organization for the purpose of committing crimes,” “laundering of assets acquired from an offense” and “violation of the tax law.”

Aydın was arrested by an İstanbul court on July 7, 2021, four days after he had surrendered to Turkey’s consulate general in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and was brought to Turkey.

More News
Latest News