The fugitive creator of an online Ponzi scheme game was extradited to Turkey late Saturday.

Mehmet Aydin, 29, who surrendered to the Turkish Consulate in Sao Paulo, was arrested at the Istanbul Airport in an ongoing investigation by Istanbul prosecutors after a Turkish Airlines plane arrived at 10.10 p.m.


Aydin, nicknamed “Tosuncuk,” who was also sought with a red notice by Interpol upon Turkey’s request, is accused of several crimes, including "establishing a criminal organization" and "fraud" and faces up to 75,260 years in prison.

Following medical checks, he was taken to the Istanbul Police Department after procedures at the Istanbul Airport Courthouse.


Following an interrogation period of four days, he will appear before the Istanbul Anatolian Court.

The Istanbul Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor's Office said that as part of the investigations initiated, two separate public cases have been filed against suspects to date, and a probe is ongoing regarding the suspects who have not yet been caught or for whom evidence has not been collected.


Several lawsuits were filed against Aydin in courts in Istanbul and Bursa for charges, including "Fraud by Using Information Systems, Banks or Credit Institutions.”

The prosecutor's office prepared an indictment against 48 suspects, seven of whom are fugitives and 11 are under arrest, as part of the investigation conducted against the founders and managers of the Farm Bank.

During the trial process at the Anatolian High Criminal Court, 18 of 48 defendants were acquitted.

The trial is prosecuting 20 defendants, four of whom were fugitives, including Aydin, his elder brother Fatih Aydin, Cengiz Samur, and Osman Naim Kaya.

The trial against the defendants will be heard by the Anatolian 6th High Criminal Court on Sept. 14.


In 2016, Aydin founded the Farm Bank, also known as “Ciftlik Bank” in Turkey that defrauded 3,762 people. It was inspired by the FarmVille social media game;


After complaints by thousands of users, a red notice was issued on March 19, 2018, based on an arrest warrant. But he disappeared and had been at large for the last two years.


Turkey’s Ministry of Justice contacted every country where Aydin was allegedly seen, within the framework of judicial cooperation, including Uruguay, Brazil, Panama, Honduras, Canada, and Ukraine.


Upon notification that Aydin was reportedly seen in Brazil, his extradition was requested from Brazil in June 2018. The request was repeated in February./aa

American sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson has been suspended for one month after failing a drug test, the US Anti-Doping Agency said on Friday.

The 21-year-old tested positive for a “main psychoactive constituent of cannabis, marijuana, and hashish,” the agency said in a statement.

Richardson has “accepted a one-month suspension … for an anti-doping rule violation for testing positive for a substance of abuse,” the statement said.

The ban, which comes into effect from June 28, the date of her provisional suspension, leaves her set to miss the Olympics starting in Japan later this month.

“Richardson’s competitive results obtained on June 19, 2021, including her Olympic qualifying results at the Team Trials, have been disqualified,” the agency said.

“Beyond the one-month sanction, athlete eligibility for the Tokyo Games is determined by the USOPC (US Olympic & Paralympic Committee) and/or USA Track & Field eligibility rules.”/aa

A person wearing a sweater with 'Progress Pride Flag' colors, including rainbow and black and brown stripes for communities of color, walks past rainbow flags at the Stonewall National Monument, the first US national monument dedicated to LGBTQ history and rights, marking the birthplace of the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer civil rights movement, on June 1, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images) - Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty ImagesMore

Teachers should drop the terms boys and girls in favour of “learners”, and mix up the sexes in PE classes, Stonewall has told schools.

The controversial LGBT charity is urging teachers to ditch all gendered language and gendered uniforms and suggests that children should compete against the opposite sex in sport.

A series of guidance documents state that uniform policies should "give the option to wear a skirt as well as the option to wear trousers". One of Stonewall’s guides said that its work in primary schools was funded by the Government Equalities Office.

Stonewall advises school staff that they should: “Avoid dividing learners by gender, whether in the classroom (you could divide them by their favourite colour, month of birth or something else) or through uniform, sports activities or other aspects of school life.”

Trans pupils can use the lavatories, changing rooms and dorms on school trips that they feel most comfortable in, another booklet states.

To be a member of the Stonewall School & College Champion schools, establishments have to pay a yearly fee, starting at £150 plus VAT for those with less than 100 pupils, and rising to £800 plus VAT for those with more than 2,000 learners.

St Paul’s, the prestigious private school in London, is reportedly among the hundreds of primary and secondary schools that are members.

Champions are then able to apply for a Bronze, Silver or Gold award to show how well they are following the “best practice”.

Those wishing to win are directed to a guide which tells them that “it is unnecessary to say 'boys and girls' when referring to learners of all genders, you could instead say 'learners'".

They are told that they should check their policies and remove any “unnecessarily gendered language. Instead of using ‘he’/‘she’, you could use ‘they'".

They should also teach primary school children to use “they/them” as a pronoun, it is said.

Tanya Carter, a spokesman for the parents and teachers campaign group Safe Schools Alliance UK, said “It is shocking that cash-strapped schools are paying for misinformation from Stonewall that undermines basic safeguarding.”

She said that sport should be "separated by sex for reasons of safety and fairness", particularly in light of a recent Ofsted report that found sexual harassment was prevalent in schools.

"Single sex sports are important to girls for reasons of privacy and dignity. This is necessary to increase girls’ participation," Ms Carter said. "Girls' participation in sports is essential to both physical and mental health.”

It is unclear what process schools go through to get an award, but an investigation by The Telegraph recently revealed the lengthy process that public bodies and companies go through to be recognised on the charity’s equality leaderboard.

The resources are also used by councils for Stonewall's Children and Young People's Services Programme. Local authorities across England, Scotland and Wales compete for a separate awards scheme requiring 'best practice' in their child provision.

Stonewall’s advice to educators also includes that teachers should not use 'boy, girl, boy, girl' when lining pupils up and ditch phrases such as 'man up' and 'don't be such a girl'.

Gendered language should also be avoided when discussing hair, make-up and piercings, it says.

A Stonewall terminology exercise for children tests them on "transitioning" and "gender dysphoria", a medical term for feeling a mismatch between birth sex and lived gender.

A spokesman for the charity said it was “very proud of all of our work supporting schools to create supportive and inclusive environments which help everyone feel accepted for who they are”.

They added that they are “confident that the advice that we give schools is robust” and “in line with the Department for Education’s guidance for schools in England, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Equality Act Code of Practice”.

A government Equalities Office spokesperson said: "Six organisations were awarded funding to deliver programmes tackling anti-homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools across the country. The funding was a one-off payment for 2019-20."/The Telegraph