Mehmet Aydın, the mastermind behind the mobile gaming app Çiftlik Bank (Farm Bank), has been handed an extraordinary sentence of 45,376 years and six months in prison.
The conviction comes after Aydın was found guilty of embezzling large sums of money from hundreds of thousands of victims, both local and international.
Launched in 2016, Çiftlik Bank quickly gained attention with its game mechanics resembling the popular Farmville.
Players could "invest" in virtual livestock, believing their money would be used to finance a massive dairy farm project.
Instead, the game operated as a Ponzi scheme, enticing over 350,000 Turkish investors and an additional 150,000 foreigners to part with their money, amounting to more than 1.1 billion Turkish lira (around $131 million).
Despite the scam’s collapse in early 2018, Aydın fled to Uruguay with a significant portion of the stolen funds.
His extravagant lifestyle there, including driving a Ferrari, drew the attention of authorities, triggering a manhunt.
After evading capture for over three years, Aydın eventually turned himself in at the Turkish embassy in Sao Paolo, Brazil, in 2021, where he was extradited back to Turkey to face trial.
At his sentencing hearing, Aydın firmly rejected the accusations.
He insisted,
"I did not intend to defraud anyone; I had no intention of committing fraud.”
He claimed that his assets, which had been frozen by authorities, prevented him from compensating victims.
He suggested that the interest accumulated on the seized funds could be used for restitution.
Despite his protests, the court proceeded with the sentence, convicting him of multiple charges, including fraud, money laundering, and establishing a criminal organisation.
Aydın’s brother, Fatih Aydın, who also faced charges related to the scheme, similarly denied any involvement.
In an effort to clear his name, he stated,
“I am not a member of any organisation. Most of the defendants do not know me, and I do not know them. I request acquittal.”
The trial began in 2019, with prosecutors initially seeking over 75,000 years in prison for Aydın and his brother.
Their conviction for fraud through information systems, money laundering, and other serious crimes has brought to a close a dramatic case that shocked many in Turkey and beyond.
Aydın's sentence is one of the longest in Turkish history, signalling the seriousness with which the authorities are tackling large-scale financial crimes.
Despite his claims of innocence, the massive scale of the fraud and the suffering of victims has led to his lengthy prison sentence.
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