Trouble for a French citizen began when he bought a Ferrari car from a Moroccan woman in April 2021, paying her the equivalent of $440,000 in bitcoins.
Thomas Clausi seized the moment when bitcoin hit a record high, trading over $60 000 per coin.
A few months later, the bitcoin exchange rate collapsed by nearly half – in July 2021, BTC was holding at about $31 500.
The frustrated woman filed a complaint against Clausi, accusing him of fraud.
Moroccan law enforcement officials have launched an investigation. In October 2021, Clausi was convicted of fraud and payment in foreign currency in Morocco.
The court sentenced the trader to 18 months in prison and also ordered him to pay $4200 compensation to the seller and pay a fine of 3.4 million euros ($3.7 million).
Clausi is months away from serving his prison sentence, but his attorneys are trying to get an early release.
At one hearing, the defense tried to convince the judge to commute the sentence, claiming that Clausi had previously bought Swiss watches for bitcoins, and that the BTC rate subsequently rose..
Thereby, the lawyers intended to prove the inability of the trader to influence the value of the cryptocurrency.
Last year, the Central Bank of Morocco began drafting legislation to regulate cryptocurrencies and combat their use in illegal activities.