- He will also pay a $3.7 million fine.
- According to the laws, all crypto-payments are prohibited in Morocco
Court of Casablanca sentenced Frenchman Thomas Clausi to 18 months in prison. Themis accrued such a severe punishment for the illegal use of cryptocurrency. The accused will also pay a fine of $3.7 million.
However, there is one more violation for Clausi, so the sentence also takes it into account.
So, the case has been pending since December 2021, so the defendant has almost served his term. He has just over a month left to serve.
Heart of the matter
Clausi’s first “crime” was a payment in BTC. He sent the coins to a French woman living in Casablanca. It was a payment for the purchase of a Ferrari car worth 400,000 euros.
Another person accused Clausi of the fact that the guy cheated on him on the deal. The Frenchman wanted to buy three pairs of luxury watches and gave him a check in return. But the payment was not processed due to lack of sufficient funds in the account.
The court ordered Clausi to pay compensation to the owner of the watch in the amount of 40,000 dirhams ($4,000), as well as pay a fine of $3.4 million euros to the customs authorities.
Young crypto startup
Thomas Clausi settled in Morocco to work on a project to create a neobank in Africa. Despite the fact that cryptocurrency trading is prohibited in the country, Morocco is the fastest growing blockchain market in the region. The share of ownership of crypto-assets is steadily growing here.
In December, Morocco’s central bank, Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM), said it was working on introducing a bill to regulate the digital asset market.
