The founder of Ponzi "Banca Farm" Turkish receives over 45,370 years in prison

Mehmet Aydın, the founder of a Turkish online ponzi scheme, who was accused of taking money from thousands of people, was sentenced to 45,376 years and six months in prison.

Aydın is accused of fraudulently by “Banca Șiftlik” once popular, or Farm Bank, an online game inspired by Farmville, where participants owned and traded animals and virtual cultures.

The participants were forced to invest real cash, which Aydın said at that time that he will use to finance the largest dairy farm in Europe.

Nicknamed “Tosuncuk” or a chuban boy in Turkish, it was believed to have collected the equivalent of over 131 million dollars in the Turkish pound from over 130,000 people through the scheme.

Ran abroad with some of the money at the beginning of 2018 and has been largely more than three years before turning into the authorities in Brazil and was extradited to Türkiye in the middle of 2021.

The game, founded in 2016, was closed at the beginning of 2018. The trial against the defendants started in 2019.

Prosecutors have sought over 75,000 years in prison for him and his brother Fatih Aydın, including the establishment and administration of an illegal organization, fraud and money laundering.

“I did not intend to cheat on anyone; I had no intention of committing fraud,” Aydın told hearing on Monday.

He claimed that his frozen assets prevented him from compensating the victims, which suggests that the accumulated interest for confiscated funds could cover the damage.

“I did not make any false statement to the applicants. I’m looking for payment, ”he added.

His brother repeated his previous defense and asked for his release. “I am not a member of any organization. Most of the defendants do not know me and do not know them. Request the acquittal,” said Fatih Aydın.

The two were convicted for “fraud by using information systems, banks or credit institutions”, “establishment, management or the fact that they are members of a criminal organization,” money laundering “and” aggravated fraud “.