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).
Indika
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THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
About Housecall
Date started: July 2020
Founders: Omar and Humaid Alzaabi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech
# of staff: 10
Funding to date: Self-funded
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
More on Quran memorisation:
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Sebastian Stefan, Sebastian Morar and Claudia Pacurar
Based: Dubai, UAE
Founded: 2014
Number of employees: 36
Sector: Logistics
Raised: $2.5 million
Investors: DP World, Prime Venture Partners and family offices in Saudi Arabia and the UAE
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
About Krews
Founder: Ahmed Al Qubaisi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: January 2019
Number of employees: 10
Sector: Technology/Social media
Funding to date: Estimated $300,000 from Hub71 in-kind support
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