Interpol has issued a red notice for Mehmet Aydın, 27-year-old Turkish national who allegedly defrauded thousands of Turks of millions of dollars via an online investment app, Sputnik Turkish service reported on Wednesday.
Aydın was included in the organization’s list of most wanted criminals upon an initiative by Turkey’s Directorate General of Security, with mug shots posted on Interpol’s website.
According to Interpol’s website, Aydın is wanted by Turkish authorities on charges of “theft by deception by using as an instrument electronic data processing systems, bank 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 offence” and “violation of tax law.”
In August 2016, Aydın established Çiftlik Bank, a company based in northern Cyprus that offers an online video game where users can purchase and raise farm animals, with the promise that the funds would be used for production on real farms to be established across Turkey.
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 founder Aydın fled to Uruguay with some $ 511 million collected from his clients.