Clausi has already served most of his sentence.

The Casablanca Court of Appeal has ruled that 21-year-old Frenchman Thomas Clausi will serve 18 months in prison for masterminding the encryption scheme. The defendants must compensate victims of their scam and pay a fine of 3.4 million euros ($3.7 million) to customs authorities.

Cryptocurrency fraudsters have been very creative lately, squeezing huge amounts of money from investors. Fortunately, law enforcement agencies have arrested some of these individuals and sent them to jail.

For example, Gilbert Armenta – the former lover of Ruja Ignatove, better known as the “Queen of Cryptocurrency” – will spend five years in prison after his involvement in the infamous OneCoin scam. Cooper Morgenthau – the former CFO of African Gold – was sentenced to three years in prison after stealing $5 million from different SPACs to trade meme stocks.

Frenchman gets jail time, but there's a catch

A Casablanca magistrate confirmed the young man's 18-month sentence, Morocco World News reported. The trial began against the defendant after a French woman living in Morocco sold him a Ferrari car several years ago for $440,000 worth of Bitcoin. Local law considers the use of digital assets an illegal payment method.

Another claimed that Clausi bought three luxury watches with a fake check. A Casablanca court ordered the man to return $4,000 to the owner of the items, and it also ruled that the defendant must pay a $3.7 million fine to customs authorities.

Clausi's lawyer, Mohamed Aghanaj, said his client has been in prison since December 2021 and has almost completed his sentence:

"He has one month and a few days left in jail."

Despite the hostile attitude of Moroccan lawmakers, cryptocurrencies are growing in popularity in the region. The country’s central bank, Al-Maghrib, has previously expressed its intention to design a relevant regulatory framework for the asset class to ensure maximum security for users.

Some previous statements

The Southern District of New York (SDNY) court sentenced Gilbert Armenta, Ruja Ignatova’s ex-boyfriend, to five years in federal prison for laundering $300 million embezzled from OneCoin investors. Prosecutors allege Armenta used some of the funds to buy a jet while gambling the remainder.

As recently reported in the media, former African Gold boss Cooper Morgenthau will also see the cells from the inside. He allegedly siphoned off more than $5 million from three SPACs and used the money to trade options on stocks and "meme stocks" and cryptocurrencies.

Speaking of crypto scammers and eventual imprisonment, the notorious Do Kwon (co-founder of Terraform Labs) and Sam Bankman-Fried (former CEO of FTX) should be mentioned.

According to numerous failed investors and institutions, both men orchestrated multi-billion dollar cryptocurrency frauds and deserved prison time. Montenegrin authorities arrested Kwon in March after allegedly being on the run for several months. He may be extradited to the United States or South Korea in the near future, where a trial will determine his guilt and possible punishment.

Bankman-Fried is currently living at his parents' home in California after serving time in a Bahamas prison. His trial in early October will determine whether he was involved in the massive FTX crash. If he is found guilty, he could spend his life in prison.