 reported on Wednesday.){kind=link}
A prosecutor has demanded a prison sentence of more than 88,000 years for Mehmet Aydın, who allegedly defrauded thousands of Turks of millions of dollars by way of an online investment app, the Demirören News Agency (DHA) reported on Wednesday.
During Wednesday’s hearing in the trial of 20 defendants, including Mehmet Aydın and his brother Fatih Aydın, the prosecutor presented his opinion and requested that the court sentence each of the brothers to 88,302 years in prison on charges of “theft by deception using electronic data processing systems, banks or lending institutions,” “establishing an organization for the purpose of committing crimes” and “laundering assets acquired from an offense.”
In its interim decision, the court ruled on Wednesday for the continuation of the arrest of the two brothers and the arrest of 17 defendants who were not in pre-trial detention, setting the next hearing for November 11.
One of the defendants will continue to be tried without detention but under judicial supervision.
Aydın and his business partners came up with the game in 2016, known as Çiftlik Bank (Farm Bank) in Turkish, 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 had issued a Red Notice for Aydın, wanted by Turkish authorities on charges of “theft by deception by using as an instrument electronic data processing systems, 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.