The man should get out of prison at some point in June.
A 21-year-old French citizen, Thomas Clausi, found himself in hot water after purchasing a luxury car using Bitcoin (BTC) in Morocco, a country where cryptocurrency transactions are illegal.
Euronews recently reported that the Casablanca Court of Appeal held a hearing sentencing the Frenchman to 18 months in prison and administering a staggering $3.7 million fine.
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The verdict serves as a clear message from the Moroccan judicial system that they are taking a firm stance against cryptocurrency use within their borders.
Mohamed Aghanaj, Clausi's lawyer, shared that the court confirmed the conviction last week.
Clausi's legal troubles began in 2021 when he used Bitcoin (BTC) to buy a Ferrari, a transaction Moroccan customs deemed an unlawful transfer of funds. He was later arrested and charged with "fraud" and "use of foreign currency for payment within Moroccan borders," with his prison sentence and fine handed down in October of the same year.
The case against Clausi was initiated after a woman from Casablanca accused him of "fraud" following the luxury car exchange for a Bitcoin payment of around $437,000.
Aghanaj noted that his client should leave prison in a month.
Interestingly, despite its illegal status, Morocco was recognized as the top country for Bitcoin trading in North Africa in 2021.
Singaporean cryptocurrency provider and aggregator Triple A reported that approximately 0.9 million people, or about 2.4% of Morocco's total population, own cryptocurrency.
At the end of January, the news broke that the central bank of the Kingdom of Morocco has reportedly finished creating a crypto regulatory framework. During the press conference regarding the matter, the central bank governor noted that the central bank is set to start a series of discussions with various companies operating in the crypto ecosystem.
