Crypto Scam Story From Morocco Reveals BTC Purchases Gone Wrong
According to Morocco World News, a Frenchman got 18 months in prison for using Bitcoin to buy a luxury car and giving a counterfeit check to another luxury watch supplier. Notably, the plaintiffs accused the defendant of defrauding them.
Thus, the Court of Appeal of Casablanca decided that the 21-year-old Frenchman, Thomas Clausi, would spend 18 months in prison and compensate the victims.
Notably, the defendant had been in a correctional facility since December 2021. As such, his attorney, Mohamed Aghanaj, stated that his prison time was almost over. Counting with prison, the defendant will serve only one month and a few more days in prison.
Clausi’s BTC purchases were fraudulent and illegal
A few years ago, the defendant purchased a Ferrari car for $440,000 BTC from a French woman in Morocco. Later, the woman reported him to the authorities for fraud.
Clausi also bought three luxury watches from another man, but gave him a fake check, bringing the man to the authorities.
In the first instance, the defendant made payments with cryptocurrencies, which were not legal in Morocco. As such, the country’s local laws deemed the method to be illegal. In the second case, Clausi defrauded another person by using a check that could not be processed due to insufficient funds.
These incident reports started the court case against the Frenchman, leading to his arrest in December 2021. Now, the court has ordered him to pay the owner of the watch an amount of MAD 40,000 or $4,000. He will also pay the customs authorities the sum of 3.4 million euros.
Morocco does not support crypto payments, but its adoption and usage among residents continues to increase. In 2022, the country’s central bank, Al-Maghrib, announced plans to develop a regulatory framework that will guide citizens’ use of cryptocurrencies.
The bank announced this at a press conference, noting that it had created a commission to monitor the process. However, while the bank intended to regulate crypto usage with its bill, Alawi kingdom remained negative about the change.
Other Notable Sentences Against Crypto Scammers
While scams in the cryptocurrency industry are steadily on the rise, authorities have been relentless in punishing criminals.
Some popular cases in the industry have brought massive declines in many cryptocurrency and BTC projects. One is the arrest and detention of Earth’s founder, Do Kwon.
Kwon was arrested in March by Montenegrin authorities and faces extradition to South Korea or the United States on various charges related to the Earth crash and investor losses.
Gilbert Armenta, who was once involved in a romantic relationship with Ruja Ignatova, popularly known as the “Cryptoqueen”, has been sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement in the notorious OneCoin scam.
Similarly, Cooper Morgenthau, former CFO of African Gold, was sentenced to three years in prison for embezzling $5 million from various SPACs and using the money to trade meme shares.
-Featured image from Pixabay and chart from Tradingview