Man Buys Ferrari With Bitcoin, Gets 18-month Prison Sentence

Using crypto in any way is still illegal in this African country, despite many of its citizens owning digital assets

article-image

Juraj Kamenicky/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

A 21-year-old French citizen who bought a Ferrari with bitcoin had his 18-month sentence and $3.7 million fine upheld by a Moroccan court. 

The original sentence handed down by the Casablanca Court of Appeals in October 2022 against Thomas Clausi was upheld earlier this month, his lawyer, Mohamed Aghanaj, confirmed. Clausi was arrested for buying the luxury sports car in 2021.

Morocco banned holding and trading cryptocurrencies in 2017. 

The enforcement actions against Clausi began when a French woman living in Casablanca sold the Ferrari in question to Clausi for a bitcoin payment worth 400,000 euros ($436,600) at the time. She filed a complaint accusing him of “fraud.”

A Moroccan citizen submitted a separate complaint against the Frenchman, alleging Clausi signed a fraudulent check with the name of another individual — which he obtained in exchange for bitcoin — in order to buy three of the Moroccan citizen’s watches. 

The court ordered Clausi to repay the watch owner with 3,900 euros. 

While the full sentence was 18 months, Aghanaj said that Clausi will spend a little bit more than a month in jail to complete his sentence. With this decision against Clausi, the country appears to be sending a message to all those who have a desire to use digital assets.

Despite Morocco’s hard stance on crypto, its citizens seem keen on digital assets. Morocco ranks 14th in the world on crypto adoption based on five different factors, according to a 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index by Chainalysis.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) represent low-hanging fruit in a massive market ripe for Web3-driven disruption. The global CDN market was valued at ~$28B in 2024, and is projected to surpass $140B by 2034, (18.75% CAGR) underscoring the immense demand for efficient content delivery.

article-image

Bitcoin has been bullish for nearly 1,000 days

article-image

Robinhood announced that it’s building an L2 and also plans to launch staking for US users

article-image

“We’re not really doing anything controversial,” said co-founder Zak Folkman at Permissionless last week

article-image

Why equities are more stable than in past decades, plus advice from Peter Lynch

article-image

As Permissionless speakers talk on-chain RWA potential, tokenized stock platform Dinari secures FINRA broker-dealer approval

article-image

JavaScript fueled a toxic ad model for the internet, says Brendan Eich, but crypto and privacy tech could help us escape it