Moroccan Court Upholds 18-Month Sentence for Frenchman in Bitcoin Case

"Normally, the sentence was confirmed in its entirety including the damages," said Mohamed Aghanaj, the Frenchman Thomas Clausi’s lawyer, adding that his client, prosecuted for "fraud" and "payment with a foreign currency on Moroccan territory," in particular for having used bitcoins to buy a luxury car, still has a month and a few days to spend in prison.

It all started with two complaints against Clausi in a country where the use of cryptocurrency is, according to customs officials, illegal fund transfer. A complaint for "fraud" filed by a French woman residing in Casablanca. She accused the Frenchman from Moselle living in Morocco with the project, according to his father, of creating a neobank in Africa, of having sold her a Ferrari in exchange for a bitcoin payment worth 400,000 euros. The second complaint was filed by a Moroccan. He accused the Frenchman of defrauding him by giving him a bounced check in the name of a third party - obtained by the young Frenchman in exchange for bitcoins - to buy three luxury watches.