The leaders of “OneCoin” have been arrested and charged by the US District Attorney for allegedly promoting a fraudulent cryptocurrency-related pyramid scheme.
According to a notice published on March 8 by the US Attorney Office of the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Mark Scott and Konstantin Ignatov, who are the founders of OneCoin, were taken into police custody on March 6, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.
Scott, Ignatov, and Ruja Ignatova (also a OneCoin founder who remains at large) are suspected of being involved in “wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering offenses,” through which they lured unsuspecting investors into contributing “billions of dollars in the fraudulent cryptocurrency.”
Claiming To Have 3 Million Members
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria, the developers of OneCoin had allegedly been running a pyramid scheme type marketing campaign. This is said to have involved encouraging people to ask potential investors to purchase various cryptocurrency investment packages offered by OneCoin’s founders. Notably, the OneCoin team claims they have more than 3 million members worldwide.
During a meeting in Las Vegas, investors asked Ignatov when they would be able to “cash out” their coins and make a profit. In response, Ignatov reportedly said that “if you are here to cash out, leave this room now, because you don’t understand what this project is about.”
“Promising” Huge Returns
Geoffrey S. Berman, a Manhattan US Attorney assigned to the case, noted:
As alleged, these defendants created a multibillion-dollar ‘cryptocurrency’ company based completely on lies and deceit. They promised big returns and minimal risk, but, as alleged, this business was a pyramid scheme based on smoke and mirrors more than zeroes and ones. Investors were victimized while the defendants got rich. Our Office has a history of successfully targeting, arresting, and convicting financial fraudsters, and this case is no different.
Between the last quarter of 2014 and the third quarter of 2016, the creators of OneCoin reportedly managed to generate approximately $3.769 billion in total revenue from sales – while also making “profits” of around $2.509 billion. Commenting on the matter, Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., a New York County District Attorney, remarked: “These defendants [the Ignatovs] executed an old-school pyramid scheme on a new-school platform, compromising the integrity of New York’s financial system and defrauding investors out of billions.”
Making False Claims Regarding OneCoin
Moreover, the SDNY revealed that Ignatov, Ignatova, and several other OneCoin members made false claims regarding seemingly lucrative crypto investment schemes. These included providing false information to investors such as “the OneCoin cryptocurrency is mined using mining servers maintained and operated by the company.”
However, officials investigating the matter have reported that the OneCoin cryptocurrency is not mined using computing resources. Notably, OneCoin members had also claimed they were running a private blockchain network, but investigators reportedly learned “that OneCoin lacks a true blockchain.”
Other details reported by investigators include Ignatov making false claims that OneCoin’s management was planning to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) in order to “generate excitement and solicit additional investments from member victims.”
