Two Turkish brothers were sentenced to 45,376 years and six months in prison on Monday after being found guilty of money laundering and fraud relating to an online farming game.
Ciftlik [Farm] Bank was launched by Mehmet Aydin – nicknamed "Tosuncuk" after the Turkish term for a chubby, healthy baby – in 2016. The game was similar to the larger online game FarmVille, in that it allowed users to purchase animals and land in-game, but crucially it claimed to fund farms in Turkey and offered returns on money invested. Turkey's Capital Markets Board filed a criminal complaint after users complained about the scheme.
His brother, Fatih Aydin and another man named Koray Hasgül were sentenced in person, while others, who remain fugitives, were handed their punishment in absentia, Anadolu reported
The operation, based in Cyprus, took in more than $131 million from around 132,000 people in the 18 months before its collapse in early 2018. The men were sentenced after being found guilty of 4,414 crimes, including multiple counts of IT fraud, money laundering and starting a criminal organisation, the Turkish Demirören News Agency reported.
Mehmet Aydin, 33, denied any wrongdoing, saying he believed he should be acquitted and had the money to reimburse those who invested, but that his accounts were now frozen, the Turkish outlet DHA reported. He handed himself in to the Turkish consulate in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2021 after leaving Turkey and going on the run in 2018. His brother was detained in Uruguay in July 2021.
The pair were also issued with a fine of more than 496 million Turkish lira ($13.7 million).
