OneCoin lawyer on trial for “Crypto-scam”

Trials regarding one of the most famous cryptocurrency scams, OneCoin have begun in Manhattan, New York. Mark Scott is being accused of laundering some of the revenue from the OneCoin cryptocurrency fraud. The U.S lawyer is accused of routing $400 million out of the US and trying to conceal the true ownership and source of the funds. Prosecutors claim that Scott spent some of the fraud’s proceeds on a yacht, three homes, and a Ferrari.

Konstantin Ignatov along with Ruja Ignatova, Bulgarian entrepreneur behind “OneCoin” allegedly raked more than $ 4 billion in total but the victims of her scam claim that the company has made roughly $15 billion through their scheme. Its operations were shut down two years ago in Italy, but the headquarters located in Bulgaria are still functioning and selling its cryptocurrency. Although people associated with the scam have been arrested and charged.

Both Mark Scott, the lawyer, and the OneCoin as a whole have pleaded not guilty. Scott’s trial is the first of several that will follow. Scott’s lawyers will allegedly argue that Scott himself was scammed by the company and was not ever consciously involved in anything shady. The lawyers also indicated that they expect that the government will prove that money originated with OneCoin was invested in a fund controlled by the defendant.

Scott claims that he asked one of his colleges beforehand if the rumors were true that OneCoin was a “ pyramid scheme”, and he was reassured that nothing illegal was happening at the company. The trial will center around whether or not Mr. Scott was aware of OneCoin’s criminal operating scene. The U.S lawyer faces one charge of conspiring to commit money laundering and another to commit bank fraud. The U.S investors who claim to have been defrauded by the scheme have also filed a civil against OneCoin and the people related to the scam in order to recover their damages.

As stated on one the fillings by the New York state attorney Onecoin used the success story of Bitcoin to induce victims to invest under the guide that they too could get rich through their investments. This was false since the price of OneCoin was “fiction” and was not based on supply and demand.

For the longest time victims of the scam were trying to speak out but were being ignored. Finally, the U.S took charge, even though over 50 000 people invested in OneCoin from all over the world. The U.S is also responsible for requesting the extradition of one of the co-founders, Sebastian Greenwood from Thailand, following an operation involving the FBI.